How to write LaTeX without writing LaTeX

This page summarizes the projects mentioned and recommended in the original post on news.ycombinator.com

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  • cdlatex

    Fast input methods to enter LaTeX environments and math with GNU Emacs

  • github-orgmode-tests

    This is a test project where you can explore how github interprets Org-mode files

  • WorkOS

    The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS. The APIs are flexible and easy-to-use, supporting authentication, user identity, and complex enterprise features like SSO and SCIM provisioning.

  • mathpix.el

    Mathpix Emacs Plugin

  • rmarkdown

    Dynamic Documents for R

    One option for Markdown-esque input and Latex output is RMarkdown. RStudio does a nice job of allowing you to write markdown, embed references, code cells, and visualizations. I used it in grad school and only rarely had to drop down to Latex to do something more customized.

    https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/

  • zotero

    Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share your research sources.

    org-babel allows polyglot programming, and then org-latex export.

    Oh, and you've got magit[1] as a smarter git front-end to manage versioning.

    I use zotero[2] for all of the bibtex management.

    [1] https://magit.vc/

    [2] https://www.zotero.org/

  • magit

    It's Magit! A Git Porcelain inside Emacs.

    org-babel allows polyglot programming, and then org-latex export.

    Oh, and you've got magit[1] as a smarter git front-end to manage versioning.

    I use zotero[2] for all of the bibtex management.

    [1] https://magit.vc/

    [2] https://www.zotero.org/

  • org-fragtog

    Automatically toggle Org mode LaTeX fragment previews as the cursor enters and exits them

    you can inline any latex, more or less, and you can rapidly toggle display with something like https://github.com/io12/org-fragtog , which is a convenience method on top.

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    Power Real-Time Data Analytics at Scale. Get real-time insights from all types of time series data with InfluxDB. Ingest, query, and analyze billions of data points in real-time with unbounded cardinality.

  • plaited

    Pandoc filter for publishing code notebooks

    A lesser-known feature of Pandoc that I love are filters [0]. They allow you to manipulate the document tree mid-conversion before the output is generated. I've been working on a forked Pandoc filter that executes code blocks with Jupyter kernels, and then inserts the output [1]

    [0] https://pandoc.org/filters.html

    [1] https://github.com/jacobwhall/plaited

  • markdown

    :notebook_with_decorative_cover: A package for converting and rendering markdown documents in TeX (by Witiko)

    If your only target from Markdown is LaTeX, I recommend the LaTeX markdown package which uses lua to parse and convert the input markdown: https://github.com/Witiko/markdown

    Pandoc shines when targetting multiple backends, like EPUB, HTML and LaTeX/PDF. But the LaTeX markdown package has one advantage when only targetting LaTeX, especially in academic settings: it translates everything to the LaTeX you'd expected. For example, citations are translated into biblatex calls, while pandoc generates all of the citations and the bibliography by itself, bypassing the style and behavior you and your professors might expect.

NOTE: The number of mentions on this list indicates mentions on common posts plus user suggested alternatives. Hence, a higher number means a more popular project.

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