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The problem with TeX is that the programming language TeX is extremely bad. It is genuinely painful to use and so while the idea of using an open ended programm
by constantcrying 2y ago
The problem with TeX is that the programming language TeX is extremely bad. It is genuinely painful to use and so while the idea of using an open ended programming language to do typesetting is great the hurdles you have to move over make it very unpleasant.
Macro expansion just is not a good programming paradigm. And often when I was facing a problem which could have been handled programmatically in TeX, e.g. generation of a table, it turned out far more complex than expected. No doubt if I didn't have hundreds of hours typesetting LaTeX, but hundreds of hours programming TeX it would have been relatively easy. But my point is that having a good language at the core would make these tasks immediately obvious to someone with significant programming experience.
- 1propionyl 2y agoYou might be interested in Pollen. It's not a direct analog to TeX at all as the intended target is ebooks, but it might tick some of the boxes you've mentioned. Racket is a far better language than TeX for general purpose expression of internal logic or generation. [0] https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/ https://docs.racket-lang.org/pollen/
- constantcrying 2y agoTo be honest I think typst gets it mostly right, it puts a relatively simple python/rust'esque scripting language inside the document and lets you easily reference between them. I don't think a lisp would have been a bad option, although I generally do not really like the syntax. Certainly it is a far better option than macro expansion.