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Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

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Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#211

Post by mastermage »

gucci-on-fleek wrote: post #88
commandersaki wrote: post #10

These are some notes I wrote when I started out with typst when comparing with LaTeX: 1. It doesn't generate 5 bloody files when compiling. 2. Compiling is instant. 3. Diagnostics are way easier to understand (sort of like Rust compiler suggestion style). 4. List items can be either - item1 - item2, etc. or [item1], [item2]. The latter is way better because you can use anchoring to match on the braces (like "%" in vi…

> 5. In latex you have the \document{...} where you can't specify macros so they need to be at the top, in Typst you can specify the macros close to where you need them. You can define macros anywhere you want, but you can only load packages in the preamble (before \begin{document}). I'm not familiar with Typst, but I would assume that it also requires you to load packages at the top of the document (or at least that…

I am 95% sure that you can import wherever you want. I remember doing it with Tables i defined in an extra document and then imported only where i actually needed them.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#212

Post by throawayonthe »

Mikhail_K wrote: post #79
einpoklum wrote: post #69

Typst seems to be the product of a commercial company - fully controlled by it. That's not appropriate as a foundation for document authoring by "the public". I am also worried about the rust-centricity, seeing how rust is somewhat of a moving target.

[flagged]

how? as a copyright holder you can at any time relicense code as proprietary of course, but that neither revokes the existing licensed code, nor is at all unique to the apache license?

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#213

Post by nxpnsv »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #166
nxpnsv wrote: post #159

[deleted]

Typst is entirely open-source as well. Only the online overleaf-like system is proprietary. > Compilation is faster, but so much more time is spent writing than typesetting. Continuing in your vein of writing dismissive comments, the moment you actually start caring about how things look in your documents (you know, the reason why people use LaTeX), typesetting starts taking up a non-trivial amount of time. Not in th…

I do care how my things look, I've written books, papers, reports, CVs, slides and posters (the last two was admittedly painful). I think I reacted to a very dismissive tone towards LaTeX from typst fanboys who cannot imagine why someone would still use LaTeX, but thinking about it - I don't like the tone of my message either so I'll delete it.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#215

Post by foobarian »

TRiG_Ireland wrote: post #85
josephg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

8. Programming with it is lovely. Its got a little interpreted language built in, with helper functions like json("some_file.json"). I wrote a paper in it, and used that extensively to populate all my result tables. (Benchmark script -> JSON files -> typst compiled the results directly into the PDF).

I've said that in Typst, when you're writing, it feels like writing, and when you're programming, it feels like programming. Whereas LaTeX always feels almost, but not quite, entirely unlike programming.

The primary feeling I get from using LaTeX is: fear. Any little special thing I adjust tends to break the document, or move figures, or fixing one thing breaks another and so on. And forget about changing templates.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#216

Post by analog31 »

throwaway_7274 wrote: post #183
jfengel wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TeX had many design goals. "Being a good programming language" was not one of them.

Indeed! It undeniably succeeded at setting the standard for typesetting quality. Big ups to Don K.

It also brought typesetting to academic research, which means it's doing something that wasn't necessary before it arrived.

I was one of the last holdouts from a bygone era. I finished my dissertation in physics, in 1993. It's neither typeset, nor even in a computer readable form. Some fellow students were already using LaTeX by that point (mostly high energy physics, the slowest to graduate of the physics specialties) but I wasn't going to change my already obsolete tech stack within mere months of finishing.

I also have my parents' chemistry theses. They took handwritten manuscripts to a typist who banged out 4 copies at once using carbon paper. And then they entered their equations and figures by hand. (My thesis is hand corrected too). And their theses were short.

LaTeX did a lot of things for my fellow students, but it didn't make them finish quicker.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#217

Post by foobarian »

Eddy_Viscosity2 wrote: post #121

As a long time latex user, and one who is occasionally frustrated by usual things about latex, I have two qualms about attempting to switch to a new system. The first is I already have found solutions to many of my edge cases in latex. Will I have to do this all over again in something like Typst? It can't be so good as to not have any. And when I do encounter them, is the user base big enough to have already encount…

I guess to add to that, what if there is another party involved with your work that will demand latex? Like a library or journal publishing your thesis/paper?

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#218

Post by fathermarz »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #207
fathermarz wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

> to use a different program for turning equations to pixels?

They explain in the comment why it was risky (new thing instead of tried and true methods, not a large user base, etc.) and yet you minimized their explanation, over simplified and seem to not understand the risk involved in writing one of the most important pieces of literature in one’s career.

> why? they wont give you a phd if a single pixel is off by one bit in the alpha channel?

They meant pixel perfect as in matching the template to infer the importance of this. Then for some reason you went down the “off by one bit in the alpha channel” which is a bit of wise-assery and not meaningful nor necessary to the conversation.

As I said before, please dig deeper and use your well meaning System 2 to contribute, and not your Reddit-Tainted System 1.

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#219

Post by throwaway_7274 »

ashton314 wrote: post #209
throwaway_7274 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fellow PL grad student—not a top-3 tho ;) I’ve looked at Typst and it looks attractive. I’m not quite willing to invest in it until, say, PACMPL lets me use it there. Any idea if that will happen any time soon?

I wouldn't count on it!

For me, it's been invaluable for notes and memos (and my thesis). When it comes time to submit a paper, I transcribe everything to LaTeX. It's a pain, but it's a lesser pain than transcribing from handwritten notes scattered across three notebooks and several crumpled-up sheets of printer paper in the bottom of my bag. That's my own peculiarity; YMMV.

(Edit: also, ugh, I feel like such a goof for having written that. Thanks for being nice about it.)

Re: Typst: A Possible LaTeX Replacement

#220

Post by contrarian1234 »

WastedCucumber wrote: post #202
chickenzzzzu wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

In my experience, formatting is just about the only thing that a department/university cares about (outside of the folks on the committee), and they will send back a thesis until they're satisfied with the formatting, and that means lost time. Perhaps throwaway_7274's department has a reputation for particular attention to (meaningless) detail.

While there are formatting guidelines, I've never seen them so specific that you could only easily do it in Latex. Is that really common?

I've never actually see it as the assumed default option.. Maybe a decade back I could see that.. but not now.

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