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The about page gives me no idea of what it is, especially as someone who knows TeX quite well. It starts with the single mistake all of those pages do: "It's li
by Argorak 12y ago
The about page gives me no idea of what it is, especially as someone who knows TeX quite well. It starts with the single mistake all of those pages do: "It's like A, but with B!" On top of that, B is already in A. Typesetting with scripting? LuaTex (actually quite easy, if you know the typesetting surroundings). More layout control? ConTeXt.
The biggest hurdle in all those systems is understanding what typesetting actually is (in contrast to content editing or especially programming). It comes with a completely different vocabulary. What's a strut?[1] What's a quad?[2] What are the standard elements of typography and page layout? How are fonts measured?
Finally: how does the system manage forward compatibility (can I still compile my document from 5 years ago?) - scripting and modularity are features that have to be evaluated under all those regards.
Also, I am very surprised that code examples in the reference documentation look horrible. Isn't that what the system is there for?
That said: I love that there is competition in that space. TeX is great and will be around for a few decades, but that doesn't mean there can't be others.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strut_%28typesetting%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strut_%28typesetting%29
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_%28typography%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_%28typography%29
- tekacs 12y ago> Can I still compile my document from 5 years ago? Well on the About page it does have the FAQ: > Can I use Patoline for a huge, ten years long project that I'm starting now? > Although one of the authors has written his PhD. thesis (120 pages, in computer science) with it, we don't recommend it now. The reason for this is that small adjustements and bugfixes are being made all the time, and working on such an unstable system can be frustrating. However, for documents that are not meant to last forever in time, we would be happy to help you with it: feel free to contact us for help. > Stay tuned: we do plan to release a long term supported version of Patoline soon.
- Argorak 12y agoThis was an example question. The problem is wide, that's why I was asking about _forward compatibility_. Even if I have long term support, what happens if that runs out? How does that work in the presence of scripting and extensions? TeX has a whole culture around that - even if there are no long term releases, it is _very stable_. For example, the LPPL even prohibited releasing changed files under the same name for a long time! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX_Project_Public_License https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX_Project_Public_License