Re: Skribilo reader

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Simon, :-)

Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> skribis:

[...]

>>> Well, if it is possible to implement something similar to Texinfo, why
>>> not similar to LaTeX which is more popular for scientific authoring
>>> system than all the others.
>
>> Because LaTeX (really: TeX) has the wrong abstraction level.
>
> I am not sure to understand.  We are speaking about the surface syntax
> and if it possible to implement a Skribilo reader, then I am missing why
> it would not be possible for some LaTeX syntax.

As you know the language is actually TeX, and LaTeX is a set of TeX
macros.

One could implement a reader for a LaTeX-like syntax, but it wouldn’t be
LaTeX.

My preference would be for a Texinfo reader (possibly with extensions)
or a Scribble reader.

> For instance, the Texinfo manual reads,
>
>         A Texinfo source file is a plain text file containing text 
> interspersed
>         with @-commands (words preceded by an ‘@’) that tell the Texinfo
>         processors what to do. Texinfo’s markup commands are almost entirely
>         semantic; that is, they specify the intended meaning of text in the
>         document, rather than physical formatting instructions.
>
>         
> https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/texinfo/texinfo.html#Overview
>
> and Texinfo is a complex Perl program parsing and outputting for
> different backend, no?

Texinfo is implemented a TeX program (for printed output) a Perl program
(for all the other backends).

Guile has a Texinfo parser though (used by Guix).  It’s not
fully-fledged but good enough for a first stab at a reader, I think.

HTH!

Ludo’.