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I've been looking at this recently. It looks like an extension of what made TeX so successful: your typesetter is programmable -- and macros can live in your do
by capnrefsmmat 12y ago
I've been looking at this recently. It looks like an extension of what made TeX so successful: your typesetter is programmable -- and macros can live in your documents, defined at any time -- so any common tedious task can be automated.
Sure, Markdown and the rest have a simple syntax for everything, but what if you're writing a book and want cross-references? Or you commonly use side-by-side examples (good grammar vs. bad grammar, say) and want a macro that generates the appropriate table layout. Or you want some macros which typeset entries in your CV. And instead of crufty TeX macros you can use Racket.
If I weren't already writing a book in LaTeX I'd try writing one in Pollen.
- Tomte 12y agoAnd the macro language is actually sane!
- jostylr 12y agoI've been contemplating using my literate programming project https://github.com/jostylr/literate-programming https://github.com/jostylr/literate-programming to write a book. It would allow one to do all sorts of things in terms of reordering text, doing macros, calling out to stuff, etc. as well as having multiple compile-to targets. It would also allow one to write why one is writing what one is writing without actually putting it in the book. Kind of like writing a "behind-the-scenes" while writing the book.