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I've written and published over a dozen books. (Two published with big tech publishers, the rest self-published.) With my most recent book, I've moved my PDF g

I've written and published over a dozen books. (Two published with big tech publishers, the rest self-published.) With my most recent book, I've moved my PDF generation to Typst. LaTeX, you served me well, but I'm more than happy to never use you again. Typst is better (or decent enough) in every dimension.

amichail 2y ago
Have you tried TeXmacs or its fork Mogan?
endgame 2y ago
Typst looked promising, but the very first thing I wanted to do with it - generate some slides with code snippets, and use highlights to call out specific features of the code - is not possible. The core layout engine seems to merge `styled(...)` spans in code blocks far too aggressively, making it impossible for codly (the code highlighting package I tried) to pick out precise ranges to highlight. I went back to beamer.
- chaxor 2y ago
  This is pretty hard to believe considering how good the ecosystem in Typst is so far. There are quite a few packages for making slides in Typst including [Polylux](https://github.com/gszauer/polylux https://github.com/gszauer/polylux), [Touying](https://github.com/Wyntau/touying https://github.com/Wyntau/touying], [minideck](https://typst.app/universe/package/minideck https://typst.app/universe/package/minideck), [slydst](https://typst.app/universe/package/slydst https://typst.app/universe/package/slydst) [minimal-presentation](https://typst.app/universe/package/minimal-presentation https://typst.app/universe/package/minimal-presentation) and many more.
  - endgame 2y ago
    The problem is not with the slides package, it's with the content I want to put on the slides: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 and in particular, this comment from the author of codly where he sounds constrained by Typst: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35#issuecomment-2466781409 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35#issuecomment-24667...
    - Aaron2222 2y ago
      My impressions with Typst have been very positive, though I did notice the same issue with Codly. Typst is still quite a new tool, so my expectation would be that this kind of issue will be fixed at some point.
- Onawa 2y ago
  Look at Quarto. Write in markdown and export to web, print, and presentations (including straight to PowerPoint or reveal.js for interactive web-based slides. All from the same content using includes, variables, flags, etc. Show interactive plots directly in you presentations, tons of other features. Almost every project I create now whether it's documentation, presentation, report, website, or anything else project-related can fit within `quarto create project`.
- __mharrison__ 2y ago
  Did you file an issue? The devs are quite responsive and now is the time to act while it is making quick progress.
  - Aaron2222 2y ago
    They did[0] (as per their earlier reply[1]), and now it's fixed. [0]: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42103510 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42103510
xiaohanyu 2y ago
Just curious, what is the best part you love typst most over LaTeX? I guess: 1) the incremental compilation speed, 2) the modern user experience (better error message things, better syntax, etc)?
- __mharrison__ 2y ago
  I feel like LaTeX is very hard to really learn. I wrote it for years without really understanding it. (Still don't). I asked what was the best book for learning LaTeX. The response... "There is no book. Sit next to someone writing their dissertation." Typst on the other hand, feels modern, is readable, and is fast. (4 seconds vs 2 minutes for some of my books.) The developers are responsive. My only complaint is that some of my code broke during the latest release. I'll not complain too much because of is a nascent project and still making quick progress. After I realized that Typst had the features I required for my books, I immediately moved to it. Good riddance LaTeX. You served me well, but I felt like there was never a better option... Until now.

amichail 2y ago

Have you tried TeXmacs or its fork Mogan?

endgame 2y ago

Typst looked promising, but the very first thing I wanted to do with it - generate some slides with code snippets, and use highlights to call out specific features of the code - is not possible. The core layout engine seems to merge `styled(...)` spans in code blocks far too aggressively, making it impossible for codly (the code highlighting package I tried) to pick out precise ranges to highlight. I went back to beamer.

chaxor 2y ago
This is pretty hard to believe considering how good the ecosystem in Typst is so far. There are quite a few packages for making slides in Typst including [Polylux](https://github.com/gszauer/polylux https://github.com/gszauer/polylux), [Touying](https://github.com/Wyntau/touying https://github.com/Wyntau/touying], [minideck](https://typst.app/universe/package/minideck https://typst.app/universe/package/minideck), [slydst](https://typst.app/universe/package/slydst https://typst.app/universe/package/slydst) [minimal-presentation](https://typst.app/universe/package/minimal-presentation https://typst.app/universe/package/minimal-presentation) and many more.
- endgame 2y ago
  The problem is not with the slides package, it's with the content I want to put on the slides: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 and in particular, this comment from the author of codly where he sounds constrained by Typst: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35#issuecomment-2466781409 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35#issuecomment-24667...
  - Aaron2222 2y ago
    My impressions with Typst have been very positive, though I did notice the same issue with Codly. Typst is still quite a new tool, so my expectation would be that this kind of issue will be fixed at some point.
Onawa 2y ago
Look at Quarto. Write in markdown and export to web, print, and presentations (including straight to PowerPoint or reveal.js for interactive web-based slides. All from the same content using includes, variables, flags, etc. Show interactive plots directly in you presentations, tons of other features. Almost every project I create now whether it's documentation, presentation, report, website, or anything else project-related can fit within `quarto create project`.
__mharrison__ 2y ago
Did you file an issue? The devs are quite responsive and now is the time to act while it is making quick progress.
- Aaron2222 2y ago
  They did[0] (as per their earlier reply[1]), and now it's fixed. [0]: https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 https://github.com/Dherse/codly/issues/35 [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42103510 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42103510

xiaohanyu 2y ago

Just curious, what is the best part you love typst most over LaTeX? I guess: 1) the incremental compilation speed, 2) the modern user experience (better error message things, better syntax, etc)?

__mharrison__ 2y ago
I feel like LaTeX is very hard to really learn. I wrote it for years without really understanding it. (Still don't). I asked what was the best book for learning LaTeX. The response... "There is no book. Sit next to someone writing their dissertation." Typst on the other hand, feels modern, is readable, and is fast. (4 seconds vs 2 minutes for some of my books.) The developers are responsive. My only complaint is that some of my code broke during the latest release. I'll not complain too much because of is a nascent project and still making quick progress. After I realized that Typst had the features I required for my books, I immediately moved to it. Good riddance LaTeX. You served me well, but I felt like there was never a better option... Until now.