3 ms·

doesn't pandoc rely on some engine itself?

brudgers 1y ago
Curious why that matters to you? I mean everything has dependencies (some of the solutions elsewhere require Chrome and other common solutions require the JVM). At least Pandoc is GPL.
- kakokiyrvoooo 1y ago
  It matters because pandoc is not rendering the website to pdf, it converts the html to latex and then uses a latex engine to render the pdf.
  - brudgers 1y ago
    Forgive me but I don’t understand why that matters to you and am trying to understand what the issue with Latex is. Because lots of things work this way. For example compilers built on LLV uses an intermediate language and Python uses byte code. I suspect some html to pdf tools go through postScript.
- kreetx 1y ago
  There are multiple ways to "depend", so if pandoc executes some external tool all of the work then might as well use that external tool directly. You will get more control over how the conversion happens, know for what search for when in trouble etc.
  - brudgers 1y ago
    My understanding and experience is that Latex has a significant learning curve and Pandoc provides a more gentle front end. Of course Latex gives you fine control to hand tune the engine…but that doesn’t seem like what the OP is looking for.
    - kreetx 1y ago
      Sure, I don't mean that anyone would look at the Latex in between. I'm just saying that if tool x directly calls tool y to do the job then might as well use tool y directly.
      - brudgers 1y ago
        Since hammers and nails are a common tool-workpiece example…consider the nail gun. Theoretically you can drive nails with a 22 caliber blank cartridge without making the “call” through a nail gun. But you won’t finish laying shingles as quickly and easily… Or to put it another way, there’s a reason assemblers are almost always better than machine code and compilers are almost always better than assemblers for the ends people care about. I mean why use Latex at all when you could write your own typesetting language? Maybe because you are not a knuth.
        kreetx 1y ago
        You're confusing wrappers with alternatives. The comparison is more like if somebody published a script called html-to-pdf.sh which directly calls, e.g, chrome, would you want to use this script or use chrome directly? I would prefer the latter because (1) I would know what actually does the conversion, (2) I would know what to search for on the web should I need to tweak the output. This knowledge gives me more power as I know the actual converter. The wrapper script perhaps only helps with what the command line should be.
cpach 1y ago
Yep, you need something like XeTeX in order to render the PDF.

Curious why that matters to you? I mean everything has dependencies (some of the solutions elsewhere require Chrome and other common solutions require the JVM). At least Pandoc is GPL.

kakokiyrvoooo 1y ago
It matters because pandoc is not rendering the website to pdf, it converts the html to latex and then uses a latex engine to render the pdf.
- brudgers 1y ago
  Forgive me but I don’t understand why that matters to you and am trying to understand what the issue with Latex is. Because lots of things work this way. For example compilers built on LLV uses an intermediate language and Python uses byte code. I suspect some html to pdf tools go through postScript.
kreetx 1y ago
There are multiple ways to "depend", so if pandoc executes some external tool all of the work then might as well use that external tool directly. You will get more control over how the conversion happens, know for what search for when in trouble etc.
- brudgers 1y ago
  My understanding and experience is that Latex has a significant learning curve and Pandoc provides a more gentle front end. Of course Latex gives you fine control to hand tune the engine…but that doesn’t seem like what the OP is looking for.
  - kreetx 1y ago
    Sure, I don't mean that anyone would look at the Latex in between. I'm just saying that if tool x directly calls tool y to do the job then might as well use tool y directly.
    - brudgers 1y ago
      Since hammers and nails are a common tool-workpiece example…consider the nail gun. Theoretically you can drive nails with a 22 caliber blank cartridge without making the “call” through a nail gun. But you won’t finish laying shingles as quickly and easily… Or to put it another way, there’s a reason assemblers are almost always better than machine code and compilers are almost always better than assemblers for the ends people care about. I mean why use Latex at all when you could write your own typesetting language? Maybe because you are not a knuth.
      - kreetx 1y ago
        You're confusing wrappers with alternatives. The comparison is more like if somebody published a script called html-to-pdf.sh which directly calls, e.g, chrome, would you want to use this script or use chrome directly? I would prefer the latter because (1) I would know what actually does the conversion, (2) I would know what to search for on the web should I need to tweak the output. This knowledge gives me more power as I know the actual converter. The wrapper script perhaps only helps with what the command line should be.

cpach 1y ago

Yep, you need something like XeTeX in order to render the PDF.