Are there any projects which try to provide a subset of LaTeX functionality without being LaTeX?

Question

I need some Information for my Bachelor Thesis and I couldn't find something in the web...because I didn't know exactly which term I should google...

I'm interested in everything which try to provide some LaTeX features, like auto generated tables of content ore sections and subsections...

Are there any Markup Languages or Web Projects?

Answer 1

eplain is still a going concern, I believe.

Answer 2

MultiMarkdown, perhaps. Will take a bit of configuration of your personal texmf tree to make it seamless, and even then, the document structure looks weird, but valid.

References: MultiMarkdown LaTeX support README

Basic procedure:

• Download MMD and the LaTeX support directory.

• Install MMD, extract the LaTeX support files into your personal texmf folder (in my case, on TeX Live for Windows, I extracted everything into a texmf\tex\latex\mmd folder under my home directory

 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is B068-2864

 Directory of c:\users\mwr\texmf\tex\latex\mmd

04/08/2012  08:22 AM              .
04/08/2012  08:22 AM              ..
04/08/2012  08:22 AM              beamer
04/08/2012  08:22 AM              letterhead
04/08/2012  08:19 AM               477 mmd-article-begin-doc.tex
04/08/2012  08:19 AM               134 mmd-article-header.tex
...

• Pull up a command prompt, and update the ls-R file for your personal texmf tree:

C:\Users\mwr\texmf>mktexlsr .
mktexlsr: Updating ./ls-R...
mktexlsr: Updated ./ls-R.
mktexlsr: Done.

• Make a .MD file with a structure similar to this one based off the MMD User's Guide:

latex input:        mmd-memoir-header
Title:  peg-multimarkdown User's Guide  
Author: Fletcher T. Penney  
Base Header Level:  2  
LaTeX Mode:         memoir  
latex input:        mmd-memoir-begin-doc
latex footer:       mmd-memoir-footer

# Introduction #

[Markdown] is a simple markup language used to convert plain text into HTML. 
[MultiMarkdown] is a derivative of Markdown that adds new syntax features,
such as footnotes, tables, and metadata. Additionally, it offers mechanisms
to convert plain text into LaTeX in addition to HTML. 

[peg-multimarkdown] is an implementation of MultiMarkdown derived from
John MacFarlane's [peg-markdown]. It makes use of a parsing expression
grammar (PEG), and is written in C. It should compile for most any (major)
operating system. 

Thanks to work by Daniel Jalikut, MMD no longer requires GLib2 as a
dependency. This should make it easier to compile on various operating
systems. 

[peg-markdown]:         https://github.com/jgm/peg-markdown
[Markdown]:             http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/
[MultiMarkdown]:        http://fletcherpenney.net/multimarkdown/
[peg-multimarkdown]:    https://github.com/fletcher/peg-multimarkdown

• Pull up a command prompt, and run mmd2tex with the .md file as an argument:

mmd2tex mmd-readme.md

Find the .tex file created (in this case, mmd-readme.tex), and pull it up in a TeX editor. It will look something like

  \input{mmd-memoir-header}
  \def\mytitle{peg-multimarkdown User's Guide}
  \def\myauthor{Fletcher T. Penney}
  \def\latexmode{memoir}
  \input{mmd-memoir-begin-doc}
  \chapter{Introduction}
  \label{introduction}

  \href{http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/}{Markdown}\footnote{\href{http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/}{http:/\slash daringfireball.net\slash projects\slash markdown\slash }} is a simple markup language used to convert plain text into HTML.

The code will look weird, but it's valid. Build it and check the PDF output.

That should basically take care of it. Edit the support files as necessary to fine-tune the \documentclass, preamble, and other bits.

Answer 3

I do not know what to make of your question. If you are interested in full blown type setting system/languages two alternatives to TeX that immediatelly come to my mind are:

1. Troff
2. Lout

I am samewhat familiar with the first one. Even though Troff is not as capable of typesetting mathematics as TeX, I personally could use Troff and its pre-processor equation to get a math document of serious typographic quality. I have never used Lout so I am going to leave to experts comments about it.

Besides the above full blown typsetting systems the second thing that comes to my mind is laight weight markup languages. They provide some functionality of TeX but have far simpler syntax and much more flexibal output including TeX output.

My favorite is txt2tags.

If you are interested in alternatives to LaTeX macros then historically (not 100% sure) the first alternative was AMS-TeX macro package which is described in wonderful book Joy of TeX by Mike Spivac.

I do not know what you are after so if you clarify your question I would edit my answer.

Answer 4

1. Pandoc
Maybe Pandoc has something to offer you. It is an easy to learn, but advance mark-up language with sophisticated export filters capable to produce many different formats, including LaTeX, ODT, PDF, etc.

As @Aditya emphasize in the comment below, there is no cross referencing system in Pandoc, but you can use Latex-commands in the text (\label and \ref). Bibliographies are handled by the cite-proc-system.

Pandoc is not a perfect solution, but it is one of the better. I am not aware of any program that is capable to transfer an easy mark-up to a full LateX mark-up.

2. StarTeX
It is also a program called StarTeX at CTAN, which seems to be a HTML-inspired tag-system, with TeX as its backbone.

I have never used the system, and it is pretty old (1996). It seems to still be maintained, though.

Answer 5

There used to be LAmSTeX but I think it's outdated now.

Answer 6

Here's a few that I know of:

• itex2MML. Converts LaTeX-like mathematics to MathML.
• PHPLaTeX See the comments to: When will PHPLaTeX be released?
• LaTeX2iTeX The comments to the above can be considered as relevant for this project as well.
• The internet class This is LaTeX-within-LaTeX. The comments for the above do not apply to this project!

Answer 7

I have heard of ant, but never used it myself.

Answer 8

What about Microsoft Word? If you use the graphical markup and the stars are properly aligned, then it should be able to auto generate a TOC.