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Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

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Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#191

Post by henrebotha »

jijijijij wrote: post #157
Archelaos wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am using a LaTeX pipeline for creating text, invoices, forms, etc. from snippets stored in a database. It was quite complicated to set up, but the results are very satisfying. In principle, I would like an easier markup language, but am afraid to wast my time trying out something new, just to run into limitations after awhile. Here are my most important requirements: Multiple columns configurable for meaningful col…

Now, this isn't really an alternative, but I can recommend using pandoc instead of pure LaTex. Personally, I think text blocks are much easier to handle and read in markdown and pandoc allows you to use in-line LaTex wherever markdown is insufficient, without making basic text styling unnecessarily verbose. In my opinion, the result is a better/friendlier LaTex, or limitless markdown respectively. Especially for writ…

If you're going to do this, might as well go with AsciiDoc instead. It's vastly superior as a syntax. Markdown breaks down at the mere mention of something as trivial as a nested list item containing a table of blockquotes.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#192

Post by ajkjk »

Rochus wrote: post #172
throwaway_7274 wrote: post #161

It's night and day. I'm a PhD student currently writing my thesis in Typst. On paper this is an absurdly risky decision: it's a new technology without a huge user-base, it's not totally stable yet, etc. But I tried Typst and I had no choice. It was obviously the right thing to do, even though I'm going to have to make a pixel-perfect clone of my university's LaTeX template. I've been using LaTeX for over ten years an…

> I've been using LaTeX for over ten years and I still wouldn't say that I "know" TeX in any meaningful way. I was not only productive but proficient in Typst in a day or two. That's an interesting insight. Do you have an idea why this is? Do you have a CS background?

Isn't that everyone's experience? TeX is a nightmare. It predates all standards for sensible software.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#194

Post by aeve890 »

bryanhogan wrote: post #177

I had originally dismissed Typst, since at first glance it seemed like some closed online-only tool. But actually there's solutions such as Typstify[1] which works offline, haven't tried it yet but seemed promising. [1]: https://typstify.com/

Typst is open source. It can be used as a cli tool https://github.com/typst/typst

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#195

Post by fathermarz »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #181
throwaway_7274 wrote: post #161

It's night and day. I'm a PhD student currently writing my thesis in Typst. On paper this is an absurdly risky decision: it's a new technology without a huge user-base, it's not totally stable yet, etc. But I tried Typst and I had no choice. It was obviously the right thing to do, even though I'm going to have to make a pixel-perfect clone of my university's LaTeX template. I've been using LaTeX for over ten years an…

[flagged]

If you don’t understand what they mean and are hunting for pedantic discoveries in explanations of a problem, then please try to dig deeper and contribute more meaningfully, as per the HN guidelines.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#197

Post by the__alchemist »

I'm working through the tutorial on the WSIWYG official webapp now. The syntax for equations is remarkably intuitive! I tried a few things from guessing after skimming the tutorial, and they mostly worked in the most intuitive way. Here is what I gather this is. A mix of:

  - Markdown general formatting (images, lists etc)
  - LaTeX or MathJax-like equation syntax
  - A rendering engine and software that turns these into pixels
Is this right?

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#198

Post by Iwan-Zotow »

xigoi wrote: post #104
lupire wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For your use case, why were you using LaTeX in the first place? That is more surprising than finding a replacement for LaTeX.

What else would you use to generate PDFs from a text-based template?

Docbook

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#199

Post by Retr0id »

Rochus wrote: post #172
throwaway_7274 wrote: post #161

It's night and day. I'm a PhD student currently writing my thesis in Typst. On paper this is an absurdly risky decision: it's a new technology without a huge user-base, it's not totally stable yet, etc. But I tried Typst and I had no choice. It was obviously the right thing to do, even though I'm going to have to make a pixel-perfect clone of my university's LaTeX template. I've been using LaTeX for over ten years an…

> I've been using LaTeX for over ten years and I still wouldn't say that I "know" TeX in any meaningful way. I was not only productive but proficient in Typst in a day or two. That's an interesting insight. Do you have an idea why this is? Do you have a CS background?

I used to use LaTeX pretty frequently and although I was reasonably productive I also never felt that I "knew" it. It was a whole lot of googling "how to do x in latex" and pasting in something that was too arcane for me to remember for next time (and/or copy pasting from my own prior documents)

In all honesty, I only ever did it to achieve the "LaTeX look". These days I write in markdown or (gasp) wysiwyg editors like google docs.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#200

Post by fergie »

throwaway_7274 wrote: post #173
Rochus wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've been using LaTeX for over ten years and I still wouldn't say that I "know" TeX in any meaningful way. I was not only productive but proficient in Typst in a day or two. That's an interesting insight. Do you have an idea why this is? Do you have a CS background?

Yep, I'm a CS researcher in a top-3 department. (Hate to be all credentialist like that, but I'm guessing it does mean something to this audience.) I think a lot of the reason is that, ok, LaTeX is extremely complicated. We all know this. Its partisans tend to believe that this is because typesetting is a hard problem. Typesetting is a hard problem! We know this, too. But I think that a substantial fraction of the co…

> top-3 departement

I’m curious- what does this mean?

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