> Nevertheless, I would prefer a Markdown-based system
My free, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor, KeenWrite[1], integrates with the ConTeXt typesetting software[2]. I'm working on a branch to make integration containerized[3] because its installation is painful. KeenWrite limits math to plain TeX[4] so that the output can be rendered using any TeX-based typesetter (ConTeXt, LaTeX, MathJax, εχTEX, etc.).
Here's a sample document typeset using ConTeXt (skip to page 40 for the math):
Adding CSS mixes presentation logic with content, which is something KeenWrite strives to avoid. Instead, KeenWrite implements Pandoc's annotation syntax to keep presentation logic out of the content. I've written about this extensively in my Typesetting Markdown series[5].
You can produce some pretty amazing documents just with annotations, such as the following that I wrote in Markdown and typeset using ConTeXt:
Markdown fails at references. At some point, I'd like to implement cross-references in KeenWrite. Except there's at least six competing standards for the syntax, which I've also remarked upon[6], making the choice of syntax difficult[7].
> setting up such a pipeline is still too complicated for many
FWIW, my Typesetting Markdown series, which explains how to set up a typesetting pipeline using Pandoc, is one of the reasons I developed KeenWrite: to replace that entire pipeline (R, Markdown, externalized variable interpolation, math, and typesetting) with a single tool.
My free, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor, KeenWrite[1], integrates with the ConTeXt typesetting software[2]. I'm working on a branch to make integration containerized[3] because its installation is painful. KeenWrite limits math to plain TeX[4] so that the output can be rendered using any TeX-based typesetter (ConTeXt, LaTeX, MathJax, εχTEX, etc.).
Here's a sample document typeset using ConTeXt (skip to page 40 for the math):
https://pdfhost.io/v/4FeAGGasj_SepiSolar_Highlevel_Software_...
That document theme is called Solare[8].
> that can use CSS and MathML
Adding CSS mixes presentation logic with content, which is something KeenWrite strives to avoid. Instead, KeenWrite implements Pandoc's annotation syntax to keep presentation logic out of the content. I've written about this extensively in my Typesetting Markdown series[5].
You can produce some pretty amazing documents just with annotations, such as the following that I wrote in Markdown and typeset using ConTeXt:
https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf
> has a 100% bibtex clone for references.
Markdown fails at references. At some point, I'd like to implement cross-references in KeenWrite. Except there's at least six competing standards for the syntax, which I've also remarked upon[6], making the choice of syntax difficult[7].
> setting up such a pipeline is still too complicated for many
FWIW, my Typesetting Markdown series, which explains how to set up a typesetting pipeline using Pandoc, is one of the reasons I developed KeenWrite: to replace that entire pipeline (R, Markdown, externalized variable interpolation, math, and typesetting) with a single tool.
[1]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite
[2]: https://wiki.contextgarden.net/Installation
[3]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/1_typeset_using...
[4]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite/blob/main/docs/scree...
[5]: https://dave.autonoma.ca/blog/2020/04/28/typesetting-markdow...
[6]: https://talk.commonmark.org/t/cross-references-and-citations...
[7]: https://xkcd.com/927/
[8]: https://github.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/tree/main/sol...