31 ms·

Previously, this existed as crixet.com [0]. At some point it used WASM for client-side compilation, and later transitioned to server-side rendering [1][2]. It n

Previously, this existed as crixet.com [0]. At some point it used WASM for client-side compilation, and later transitioned to server-side rendering [1][2]. It now appears that there will be no option to disable AI [3]. I hope the core features remain available and won’t be artificially restricted. Compared to Overleaf, there were fewer service limitations: it was possible to compile more complex documents, share projects more freely, and even do so without registration. On the other hand, Overleaf appears to be open source and at least partially self-hostable, so it’s possible some of these ideas or features will be adopted there over time. Alternatively, someone might eventually manage to move a more complete LaTeX toolchain into WASM. [0] https://crixet.com https://crixet.com [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Crixet/comments/1ptj9k9/comment/nvhl1gz/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Crixet/comments/1ptj9k9/comment/nvh... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42009254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42009254 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46394937 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46394937

songodongo 8mo ago
So this is the product of an acquisition?
- vitalnodo 8mo ago
  > Prism builds on the foundation of Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform that OpenAI acquired and has since evolved into Prism as a unified product. This allowed us to start with a strong base of a mature writing and collaboration environment, and integrate AI in a way that fits naturally into scientific workflows. They’re quite open about Prism being built on top of Crixet.
crazygringo 8mo ago
I'm curious how it compares to Overleaf in terms of features? Putting aside the AI aspect entirely, I'm simply curious if this is a viable Overleaf competitor -- especially since it's free. I do self-host Overleaf which is annoying but ultimately doable if you don't want to pay the $21/mo (!). I do have to wonder for how long it will be free or even supported, though. On the one hand, remote LaTeX compiling gets expensive at scale. On the other hand, it's only a fraction of a drop in the bucket compared to OpenAI's total compute needs. But I'm hesitant to use it because I'm not convinced it'll still be around in a couple of years.
- efficax 8mo ago
  Overleaf is a little curious to me. What's the point? Just install LaTeX. Claude is very good at manipulating LaTeX documents and I've found it effective at fixing up layouts for me.
  - crazygringo 8mo ago
    I can code in monospace (of course) but I just can't write in monospace markup. I need something approaching WYSIWIG. It's just how my brain works -- I need the italics to look like italics, I need the footnote text to not interrupt the middle of the paragraph. The visual editor in Overleaf isn't true WYSIWIG, but it's close enough. It feels like working in a word processor, not in a code editor. And the interface overall feels simple and modern. (And that's just for solo usage -- it's really the collaborative stuff that turns into a game-changer.)
    - withinboredom 8mo ago
      I use inkdrop for this, then pandoc to go from markdown to latex, then a final typesetting pass. Inkdrop is great for WYSIWYG markdown editing.
    - gmac 8mo ago
      Same for me. I wrote my PhD in LyX for that reason.
  - radioactivist 8mo ago
    In my circles the killer features of Overleaf are the collaborative ones (easy sharing, multi-user editing with track changes/comments). Academic writing in my community basically went from emailed draft-new-FINAL-v4.tex files (or a shared folder full of those files) to basically people just dumping things on Overleaf fairly quickly.
  - bhadass 8mo ago
    collaboration is the killer feature tbh. overleaf is basically google docs meets latex.. you can have multiple coauthors editing simultaneously, leave comments, see revision history, etc. a lot of academics aren't super technical and don't want to deal with git workflows or syncing local environments. they just want to write their fuckin' paper (WTFP). overleaf lets the whole research team work together without anyone needing to learn version control or debug their local texlive installation. also nice for quick edits from any machine without setting anything up. the "just install it locally" advice assumes everyones comfortable with that, but plenty of researchers treat computers as appliances lol.
vicapow 8mo ago
The deeper I got, the more I realized really supporting the entire LaTeX toolchain in WASM would mean simulating an entire linux distribution :( We wanted to support Beamer, LuaLaTeX, mobile (wasn't working with WASM because of resource limits), etc.
- seazoning 8mo ago
  We had been building literally the same thing for the last 8 months along with a great browsing environment over arxiv -- might just have to sunset it Any plans of having typst integrated anytime soon?
  - vicapow 8mo ago
    I'm not against typst. I think it's integration would be a lot easier and more straightforward I just don't know if it's really that popular yet in academia.
    - gunalx 8mo ago
      its not yet, but gaining traction.
- BlueTemplar 8mo ago
  But what's the point ? To end up with yet another shitty (because running inside a browser, in particular its interface) web app ? Why not focus efforts into making a proper program (you know, with IBM menu bars and keyboard shortcuts), but with collaborative tools too ?
  - jll29 8mo ago
    You are right in pointing out that the Web browser isn't the most suitable UI paradigm for highly interactive applications like a scientific typesetting system/text editor. I have occasionally lost a paragraph just by accidental marking a few lines and pressing [Backspace]. But at the moment, there is no better option than Overleaf, and while I encourage you to write what you propose if you can, Overleaf will be the bar that any such system needs to be compared against.
doctorpangloss 8mo ago
It seems bad for OpenAI to make this about latex documents, which will be now associated, visually, with AI slop. The opposite of what anyone wants really. Nobody wants you to know they used a chatbot!
- amitav1 8mo ago
  Am I missing something? LaTeX is associated with slop now?
  - nemomarx 8mo ago
    If a common AI tool produces latex documents, the association will be created yeah. Right now latex would be a high indicator of manual effort, right?
    - jasonfarnon 8mo ago
      don't think so. I think latex was one of academics' earlier use cases of chatgpt, back in 2023. That's when I started noticing tables in every submitted paper looking way more sophisticated than they ever did. (The other early use case of course being grammar/spelling. Overnight everyone got fluent and typos disappeared.)
      - jmdaly 8mo ago
        It's funny, I was reading a bunch of recent papers not long ago (I haven't been in academia in over a decade) and I was really impressed with the quality of the writing in most of them. I guess in some cases LLMs are the reason for that!
        trentnelson 8mo ago
        If you’ve got an existing paragraph written that you just know could be rephrased more eloquently, and can describe the type of rephrasing/restructuring you want… LLMs absolutely slap at that.
swyx 8mo ago
we did a podcast with the Crixet founder and Kevin Weil of OAI on the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2cBTVr8nxU&pp=2Aa0Bg%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2cBTVr8nxU&pp=2Aa0Bg%3D%3D
- vicapow 8mo ago
  thanks for hosting us on the pod!
regenschutz 8mo ago
I was using Crixet before I switched over to Typst[0] for all of my writing. However, back when I did use Crixet, I never used its AI features. It was just a much better alternative to Overleaf for me. Sad to see that AI will be forced on all Crixet users now. [0]: https://typst.app https://typst.app
realaaa 8mo ago
great context - thanks ! so yeah maybe Overleaf is the way to go now :)

songodongo 8mo ago

So this is the product of an acquisition?

vitalnodo 8mo ago
> Prism builds on the foundation of Crixet, a cloud-based LaTeX platform that OpenAI acquired and has since evolved into Prism as a unified product. This allowed us to start with a strong base of a mature writing and collaboration environment, and integrate AI in a way that fits naturally into scientific workflows. They’re quite open about Prism being built on top of Crixet.

crazygringo 8mo ago

I'm curious how it compares to Overleaf in terms of features? Putting aside the AI aspect entirely, I'm simply curious if this is a viable Overleaf competitor -- especially since it's free. I do self-host Overleaf which is annoying but ultimately doable if you don't want to pay the $21/mo (!). I do have to wonder for how long it will be free or even supported, though. On the one hand, remote LaTeX compiling gets expensive at scale. On the other hand, it's only a fraction of a drop in the bucket compared to OpenAI's total compute needs. But I'm hesitant to use it because I'm not convinced it'll still be around in a couple of years.

efficax 8mo ago
Overleaf is a little curious to me. What's the point? Just install LaTeX. Claude is very good at manipulating LaTeX documents and I've found it effective at fixing up layouts for me.
- crazygringo 8mo ago
  I can code in monospace (of course) but I just can't write in monospace markup. I need something approaching WYSIWIG. It's just how my brain works -- I need the italics to look like italics, I need the footnote text to not interrupt the middle of the paragraph. The visual editor in Overleaf isn't true WYSIWIG, but it's close enough. It feels like working in a word processor, not in a code editor. And the interface overall feels simple and modern. (And that's just for solo usage -- it's really the collaborative stuff that turns into a game-changer.)
  - withinboredom 8mo ago
    I use inkdrop for this, then pandoc to go from markdown to latex, then a final typesetting pass. Inkdrop is great for WYSIWYG markdown editing.
  - gmac 8mo ago
    Same for me. I wrote my PhD in LyX for that reason.
- radioactivist 8mo ago
  In my circles the killer features of Overleaf are the collaborative ones (easy sharing, multi-user editing with track changes/comments). Academic writing in my community basically went from emailed draft-new-FINAL-v4.tex files (or a shared folder full of those files) to basically people just dumping things on Overleaf fairly quickly.
- bhadass 8mo ago
  collaboration is the killer feature tbh. overleaf is basically google docs meets latex.. you can have multiple coauthors editing simultaneously, leave comments, see revision history, etc. a lot of academics aren't super technical and don't want to deal with git workflows or syncing local environments. they just want to write their fuckin' paper (WTFP). overleaf lets the whole research team work together without anyone needing to learn version control or debug their local texlive installation. also nice for quick edits from any machine without setting anything up. the "just install it locally" advice assumes everyones comfortable with that, but plenty of researchers treat computers as appliances lol.

vicapow 8mo ago

The deeper I got, the more I realized really supporting the entire LaTeX toolchain in WASM would mean simulating an entire linux distribution :( We wanted to support Beamer, LuaLaTeX, mobile (wasn't working with WASM because of resource limits), etc.

seazoning 8mo ago
We had been building literally the same thing for the last 8 months along with a great browsing environment over arxiv -- might just have to sunset it Any plans of having typst integrated anytime soon?
- vicapow 8mo ago
  I'm not against typst. I think it's integration would be a lot easier and more straightforward I just don't know if it's really that popular yet in academia.
  - gunalx 8mo ago
    its not yet, but gaining traction.
BlueTemplar 8mo ago
But what's the point ? To end up with yet another shitty (because running inside a browser, in particular its interface) web app ? Why not focus efforts into making a proper program (you know, with IBM menu bars and keyboard shortcuts), but with collaborative tools too ?
- jll29 8mo ago
  You are right in pointing out that the Web browser isn't the most suitable UI paradigm for highly interactive applications like a scientific typesetting system/text editor. I have occasionally lost a paragraph just by accidental marking a few lines and pressing [Backspace]. But at the moment, there is no better option than Overleaf, and while I encourage you to write what you propose if you can, Overleaf will be the bar that any such system needs to be compared against.

doctorpangloss 8mo ago

It seems bad for OpenAI to make this about latex documents, which will be now associated, visually, with AI slop. The opposite of what anyone wants really. Nobody wants you to know they used a chatbot!

amitav1 8mo ago
Am I missing something? LaTeX is associated with slop now?
- nemomarx 8mo ago
  If a common AI tool produces latex documents, the association will be created yeah. Right now latex would be a high indicator of manual effort, right?
  - jasonfarnon 8mo ago
    don't think so. I think latex was one of academics' earlier use cases of chatgpt, back in 2023. That's when I started noticing tables in every submitted paper looking way more sophisticated than they ever did. (The other early use case of course being grammar/spelling. Overnight everyone got fluent and typos disappeared.)
    - jmdaly 8mo ago
      It's funny, I was reading a bunch of recent papers not long ago (I haven't been in academia in over a decade) and I was really impressed with the quality of the writing in most of them. I guess in some cases LLMs are the reason for that!
      - trentnelson 8mo ago
        If you’ve got an existing paragraph written that you just know could be rephrased more eloquently, and can describe the type of rephrasing/restructuring you want… LLMs absolutely slap at that.

swyx 8mo ago

we did a podcast with the Crixet founder and Kevin Weil of OAI on the process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2cBTVr8nxU&pp=2Aa0Bg%3D%3D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2cBTVr8nxU&pp=2Aa0Bg%3D%3D

vicapow 8mo ago
thanks for hosting us on the pod!

regenschutz 8mo ago

I was using Crixet before I switched over to Typst[0] for all of my writing. However, back when I did use Crixet, I never used its AI features. It was just a much better alternative to Overleaf for me. Sad to see that AI will be forced on all Crixet users now. [0]: https://typst.app https://typst.app

realaaa 8mo ago

great context - thanks ! so yeah maybe Overleaf is the way to go now :)