[Pytex-development] DocUtils

[Jonathan F. <jf...@ac...>]

Eric Arnoth wrote:
> Jonathan:
> 
>>At Python UK it was recommended that I visit
>>   http://docutils.sourceforge.net
>>
>>Highly relevant.
> 
> Wow.  I'm very impressed with this module.  How do you feel this impacts 
> PyTeX?  Can we tie in with it, does it make this project obsolete (doubt it), 
> or is it just another tool for a different text-related task...?
> 
> For what I want to see in PyTeX, the ability to create a document by making 
> function calls, I don't think this is a competing project.  The main focus of 
> it seems to be a simplified way for a human to generate a docuement. I'm 
> looking for an easier way to make handsome reports in daemons & lengthy 
> scripts.  Granted, I've only spent 30 minutes looking into the docutils stuff 
> and doing the 'hello world' type stuff...
> 
> What's your take?


I think that we can learn a lot from Docutils.  I'm a great fan of HML
(human markup languages) such as TeX and LaTeX.  XML uses the same
markup for the small as for the large, which is hard on the eyes.

Docutils wish to create HTML, XML and TeX from plain text (i.e. HML).
It says so on their Sourceforge home page.

Analogy with PostScript may be helpful.  Many applications generate
PostScript, by using library calls.  Put another way, suitable
structures can be serialized into PostScript.  I'd like a similar
interface to TeX.

To me, it seems that we have two overlapping projects.


Jonathan