Mint Is Not TeX (opens in new tab)

(mint.ubavic.rs)

28 pointsubavic3mo ago5 comments

5 comments

smartmic3mo ago

With all the @ symbols, it reminds me a lot of Lout.

Unfortunately, Lout never really took off, but I have fond memories of it. I liked it more than LaTeX, too.

[0]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lout

ubavicOP3mo ago

That is something I accidentally discovered. TexInfo also uses @.

netdoll3mo ago

Texinfo ultimately gets the @ convention from Brian Reid's Scribe[1], as developed at Carnegie Mellon during the late 70s and commercialized by Unilogic[2,3] in the 80s. Coincidentally, there was a close derivative of Scribe called Mint[4], also developed at Carnegie Mellon in the early 80s for the PERQ (an early personal workstation competing in the category of things like the Sun-1 or Lisp Machines).

[1] https://bitsavers.org/pdf/cmu/scribe/Scribe_Introductory_Use... [2] https://bitsavers.org/pdf/unilogic/Scribe_Document_Productio... [3] https://bitsavers.org/pdf/unilogic/Scribe_Pocket_Reference.p... [4] http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/cmu/spice/Users_Manual_for_Mint...

zem3mo ago

same, I used to use it to add PDF generation to my small projects because it was really easy to synthesise and output lout

qwertfisch3mo ago

What about Typst? Looks to me as a valid TeX successor with a streamlined syntax and much better programming abilities without the limitations of 1977/1982.

Typst is on my list, I wanted to have a look at this year, but unfortunately no time and no need. Except for one letter every one or two years I did not use LaTeX since my diploma thesis.

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