From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: ludo@gnu.org (Ludovic =?utf-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?=) Newsgroups: gmane.comp.type-setting.lout,gmane.lisp.guile.user,gmane.comp.type-setting.skribilo.user Subject: Re: [ANN] Skribilo 0.9.4 released Date: Thu, 03 May 2018 15:30:33 +0200 Message-ID: <87vac4j286.fsf@gnu.org> References: <87o9i111jf.fsf@gnu.org> <87o9hxqgvi.fsf@gmail.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: blaine.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: blaine.gmane.org 1525354133 29233 195.159.176.226 (3 May 2018 13:28:53 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@blaine.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 3 May 2018 13:28:53 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/25.3 (gnu/linux) Cc: guile-user@gnu.org, skribilo-users@nongnu.org, lout-users@nongnu.org To: Pierre Neidhardt Original-X-From: lout-users-bounces+gctl-lout-1=m.gmane.org@nongnu.org Thu May 03 15:28:48 2018 Return-path: Envelope-to: gctl-lout-1@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1fEEHw-0007Td-HX for gctl-lout-1@m.gmane.org; Thu, 03 May 2018 15:28:48 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:56374 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fEEK3-0001jf-F3 for gctl-lout-1@m.gmane.org; Thu, 03 May 2018 09:30:59 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:36142) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fEEJo-0001g0-Ak for lout-users@nongnu.org; Thu, 03 May 2018 09:30:50 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fEEJl-0004e4-Dd for lout-users@nongnu.org; Thu, 03 May 2018 09:30:44 -0400 Original-Received: from hera.aquilenet.fr ([2a0c:e300::1]:59678) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:DHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1fEEJl-0004d6-6k; Thu, 03 May 2018 09:30:41 -0400 Original-Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hera.aquilenet.fr (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89FDC179FF; Thu, 3 May 2018 15:30:39 +0200 (CEST) X-Virus-Scanned: Debian amavisd-new at aquilenet.fr Original-Received: from hera.aquilenet.fr ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (hera.aquilenet.fr [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id bR08e4vXBVqn; Thu, 3 May 2018 15:30:38 +0200 (CEST) Original-Received: from ribbon (unknown [194.12.147.100]) by hera.aquilenet.fr (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 62A90126E5; Thu, 3 May 2018 15:30:37 +0200 (CEST) Mail-Followup-To: skribilo-users@nongnu.org X-URL: http://www.fdn.fr/~lcourtes/ X-Revolutionary-Date: 14 =?utf-8?Q?Flor=C3=A9al?= an 226 de la =?utf-8?Q?R?= =?utf-8?Q?=C3=A9volution?= X-PGP-Key-ID: 0x090B11993D9AEBB5 X-PGP-Key: http://www.fdn.fr/~lcourtes/ludovic.asc X-PGP-Fingerprint: 3CE4 6455 8A84 FDC6 9DB4 0CFB 090B 1199 3D9A EBB5 X-OS: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu In-Reply-To: <87o9hxqgvi.fsf@gmail.com> (Pierre Neidhardt's message of "Thu, 03 May 2018 10:32:17 +0200") X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2a0c:e300::1 X-BeenThere: lout-users@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.21 Precedence: list List-Id: "Users of the Lout document typesetting system." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: lout-users-bounces+gctl-lout-1=m.gmane.org@nongnu.org Original-Sender: "Lout-users" Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.comp.type-setting.lout:2206 gmane.lisp.guile.user:14554 gmane.comp.type-setting.skribilo.user:235 Archived-At: Hello, (Replying to everyone, but we should probably strip the Cc: list afterwards= .) Pierre Neidhardt skribis: > This must be the computer program I've been waiting for the longest time! > (Roughly 10 years...) Heheh. :-) > 1. Is there any procedural graphics capability? Here I'm thinking TikZ, > Asymptote, etc. TikZ turns "programming" into a much dreaded nightmare > and while Asymptote makes it a bit more approachable, it still suffers > from a language that has more ill-designed "features" than C++. No, there=E2=80=99s no such thing. There=E2=80=99s a high-level pie chart = package that simply generates Lout or Ploticus code currently, but that=E2=80=99s about = it. > 2. What about page formatting capabilities? Can Skribilo generate, say, > a letter? No, it just relies on Lout or LaTeX/ConTeXT to do that. All it does is generate code for these. > 3. How is it related to other GNU projects? Is it used anywhere? I don=E2=80=99t think it=E2=80=99s much used by other projects. :-) Now, with an improved backend plus a Texinfo frontend (a =E2=80=9Creader=E2= =80=9D in Skribilo parlance, which could use Guile=E2=80=99s stexi modules), it could become an option for some existing manuals. > 4. Skribilo's manual is available in HTML / PDF format, but not in > Info. Strange, is there a good reason for it? I like Info :) If you install it, you=E2=80=99ll get the Info manual. But note that the I= nfo backend still leaves a lot to be desired. > 5. This seems to be in direct competition with Racket's Scribble (which > I haven't really tested either). Is there a good reason for not merging > the two projects? What are the differences between the two? The two projects are similar in spirit, yes. I think Scribble is a bit younger but it=E2=80=99s also more widely used and maybe more featureful nowadays. Scribble uses Racket, Skribilo uses Guile, and there are some differences (for example, I think the document processing phases work differently.) But anyway, you tell me! > 6. I didn't know about Lout: the project page is rather empty and the > description very scarce. If I understand correctly, it's an alternative > to TeXlive as a PDF rendering backend. If so, then it's a brilliant > initiative, I find TeXlive so bloated it is hardly manageable. Lout is the only practical purely functional document layout system that I know of, and yes, it=E2=80=99s not very well know. The implementation ha= s a few shortcomings though, in particular that of not supporting Unicode. > 7. As for Lout, I had never heard of Skribilo before. Maybe it's just > me... But I think it would be worth reaching out for a broader > audience. The vast majority of the academia has been stuck with LaTeX > for too long, I can hear the far cries of too many people begging for > some progress! :D I=E2=80=99d say that Skribilo is on the same level as Docbook, but not real= ly on the same level as LaTeX: it doesn=E2=80=99t do any of the low-level layout stuff. That said, it=E2=80=99s usually simpler to work with, though becaus= e it =E2=80=9Ccompiles=E2=80=9D to LaTeX/Lout, you also occasionally have to be = aware of these lower-level tools. Thanks for your feedback! Ludo=E2=80=99.