Re: Alternatives for reST -> PDF

"G. Milde" <g.milde <at> web.de> writes:

> Wanted: Alternatives for reST -> PDF

Thanks for this collation of the options discussed so far.

> What I would like to see is a script that does the reST2PDF
> conversion with one command, similar to rst2html or rst2latex.

Yes, that's my need as well. In my processes, LaTeX is useful only to
the extent that it helps get to that goal.

> pdflatex
> --------
>
> My first suggestion was a wrapper script around pdflatex that would
> care for the necessary preparation, run as many times as needed and
> clean up afterwards thus bypassing the most obvious annoyances of LaTeX.

Something that can:

  - run as a pipeline (LaTeX on stdin, PDF on stdout) by default

  - allow any specified path for input file and/or output file

  - hide all the cruft that LaTeX processing creates, leaving no extra
    files unless asked

  - properly handle Unicode, standard fonts, standard filenames and
    locations, and other conventions that seem poorly supported by
    LaTeX

  - ensure that the process ends with either an unambiguous error
    state, or a complete PDF rendering of the input

Currently pdflatex does *none* of these, and is thus a bad tool
(largely because it fails to sufficiently abstract the underlying bad
tools).

I don't understand enough about LaTeX and associated tools to do this
myself, nor am I interested in learning about it, which is why I'm
looking for alternatives to avoid LaTeX altogether.

> There is a script to facilitate pdf creation at
> http://developer.berlios.de/projects/tex2pdf/
> that could serve as a base.

Thanks, I'll see how far that gets me.

> I do not suggest that LaTeX is up to date or has a well designed
> user interface. But I still consider the output of LaTeX of
> excellent quality, especially in the field of science and math.

I'm bemused at the default selection of fonts, and the seeming
inability to just use the far-better-supported TrueType fonts on my
system. But that aside, the quality of a completed LaTeX rendering is
good; getting there is the painful part.

I also agree with others that good-quality PDF generation is hardly
the exclusive domain of LaTeX any more. Not that this is necessarily
the purpose of LaTeX; but if that's all I want from it, that's how
I'll judge it as a tool in this process.

> [enumeration of other possibilities]

Thanks again for putting these in one post. Hopefully this discussion
can lead to alternatives being better developed.

--

-- 
 \             "Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to |
  `\      recognize a mistake when you make it again."  -- Franklin P. |
_o__)                                                            Jones |
Ben Finney

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