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Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

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Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#111

Post by yukeabu »

radicality wrote: post #106
yukeabu wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PDF is less likely to contain executable malicious code than other formats.

Is it? More so than say .csv file ? I was under the impressions that pdfs are not that safe. I thought they can do stuff like execute a subset of PostScript and Javascript.

Look, when it comes to corporate reporting, PDFs are pretty much the gold standard. Sure, they've got some potential security issues, but any decent company's IT department has them well in hand.

Think about it - you want your reports to look sharp, right? PDFs deliver that professional look every time, no matter who opens them or on what device. Plus, they've got all those nifty features like password protection and digital signatures that the big guys love.

CSV files? They're great for crunching numbers, but let's face it - they look about as exciting as a blank wall. Try sending a CSV report to the board of directors and watch their eyes glaze over.

So, yes, for reporting in a company that's got its security act together, PDFs are your best bet. They're like the well-dressed, security-savvy cousin of other file formats - they look good and keep things safe.

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#112

Post by constantcrying »

crngefest wrote: post #3
sprinkly-dust wrote: post #2

Having composed many pieces of coursework using Typst, I must say that it certainly makes academic writing more streamlined, engaging, and dare I say fun — though that might just be me. The functional nature of Typst's syntax ensures I don't have the erratic behaviour emblematic of modern day Microsoft Word and sometimes even Google Docs. Using a local IDE such as VSCode brings all the features one could like. In com…

As someone who almost never needs equations, does this have any benefits to me over using markdown?

Typst deals with documents, so if you want to prepare an actual document, with a defined page layout, style, font, etc. typst gives you that.

Markdown does not do any of that, it just gives you html.

You would want to use typst if you want to create a document and need to control how that document looks from the language itself. Even if you were to render the markdown html to a PDF, markdown itself, or even css doesn't give you control over many parameters of the output document.

There basically is no competition between the tools, they target different output formats.

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#113

Post by constantcrying »

amai wrote: post #87

Unfortunately out of the box typst is missing an important layout features compared to Latex: the auto-generation of headers (showing the section name in the header). There are some packages that help you with that: - https://typst.app/universe/package/hydra , - https://typst.app/universe/package/chic-hdr - https://typst.app/universe/package/wonderous-book However I believe this functionality should be available in t…

Typst comes as a blank slate. You want to start with template, which defines things for you.

The difference between LaTeX and Typst is that LaTeX wants you to define a template with the "documentclass", if you want the same experience in Typst you want to setup typst with a template, there the headings will be defined for you already.

>However I believe this functionality should be available in the typst core.

You can trivially define headings in typst without using packages.

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#114

Post by slashdave »

kerkeslager wrote: post #95
slashdave wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume you know that tex predates the web by many years?

So? If I'm a modern user who needs my typesetting system to generate HTML, I'm not going to "forgive" a typesetting system because it's older than the web and use it even though it doesn't do what I need.

I am just trying to understand how you expect a typesetting system to be designed around a paradigm that doesn't exist yet.

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#115

Post by [deleted] »

slashdave wrote: post #114
kerkeslager wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? If I'm a modern user who needs my typesetting system to generate HTML, I'm not going to "forgive" a typesetting system because it's older than the web and use it even though it doesn't do what I need.

I am just trying to understand how you expect a typesetting system to be designed around a paradigm that doesn't exist yet.

[deleted]

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#117

Post by CBarkleyU »

slashdave wrote: post #114
kerkeslager wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? If I'm a modern user who needs my typesetting system to generate HTML, I'm not going to "forgive" a typesetting system because it's older than the web and use it even though it doesn't do what I need.

I am just trying to understand how you expect a typesetting system to be designed around a paradigm that doesn't exist yet.

While GP is not here, can you make me understand how exactly you deduced that GP expected TeX to be designed around said paradigm?

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#118

Post by kerkeslager »

slashdave wrote: post #114
kerkeslager wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So? If I'm a modern user who needs my typesetting system to generate HTML, I'm not going to "forgive" a typesetting system because it's older than the web and use it even though it doesn't do what I need.

I am just trying to understand how you expect a typesetting system to be designed around a paradigm that doesn't exist yet.

I don't expect LaTeX to be designed around a paradigm that didn't exist when LaTeX created.

Why do you think anyone expects that?

Why should anyone looking for a typesetting tool care when it was designed?

Why don't you use a Commodore64? I know it doesn't do anything you need it to do, but you have to cut it some slack, it was designed before any of the things you need to do existed!

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#119

Post by zmmmmm »

We use a custom tool that bases everything on markdown for this type of thing. It also integrates Jupyter notebooks. It is mostly very effective but the limitations of Markdown certainly grate. Having said that the best thing by far is that it's automatically viewable in Gitlab/Github in source form. This doesn't look like it would fare all that well.

Re: Typst: An easy to learn alternative for LaTex

#120

Post by constantcrying »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #20

I'm surprised to see that HTML output is currently in progress, and was not a core feature from the start. [0] LaTeX's awkward relationship with the web seems like something a competing greenfield project would try to nail right out of the gate (to mix metaphors painfully). [0] https://github.com/typst/typst/issues/721

Typst wants to compete with LaTeX.

They both face the same problem, namely that the web and paper work completely differently and there are untranslatable concepts. So you have to define some way in which your typesetting gracefully settles into a different environment.

If typst had targeted html immediately it certainly would have made their life a lot easier, but it would have been nothing more than an overly complex site generator. Targeting PDF first means that they actually want to compete with LaTeX.

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