It's a monolithic kernel with a relatively sane collection of "setup" macros that, by and large, can accomplish much of what LaTeX and its packages can do.
If you're curious about how to build TeX from scratch, have a look at my TeX.SE answer:
https://github.com/typst/typst is an interesting competitor to ConTeXt. It's not even TeX, but somehow I tried (and liked) it before I tried CoTeXt. TeX syntax is not something I ever enjoyed in LaTeX.
How much more compatible with LaTeX is ConTeXt than typst? For example, is there tikz for ConTeXt?
> It's a monolithic kernel with a relatively sane collection of "setup" macros that, by and large, can accomplish much of what LaTeX and its packages can do.
I don't know what constitutes "sane", but I literally just downloaded and installed it right now because you mentioned it, and it choked on a trivial hello world:
$ mtxrunjit --script context doc.tex
...
> tex error on line 1 in file doc.tex: ! Undefined control sequence
...
1 >> \documentclass{article}
2 \begin{document}Hello, world\end{document}
...which might explain why it goes unmentioned?
I feel like this is gonna be a tougher sell than you expect. How the heck is a user expected to switch to ConTeXt?
I imagine making a buggy and unmaintainable version could be done quickly, sure, if you don't mind your documents being killed by a thousand small typesetting cuts. TeX is incredibly complicated for good reasons, people should read Knuth's book.
The reason TeX is written in a 1984 dialect of Pascal is that the typesetting bugs have been solved in a completely specified language; it is much easier to write a transpiler for Pascal->C than to rewrite TeX. Asking an LLM to rewrite it in the language-du-jour is a huge cost for very little benefit.
BTW it has been so depressing in the last few months to see LLM-generated projects make claims about performance/accuracy, but there is no benchmarking code on Github and the "thousands of tests" are all useless happy paths. I am sure we will see some grifter claim that Claude rewrote TeX and I am sure dozens of credulous HN users will take it seriously. But we won't see a useful rewrite. It'll be resume-oriented slop like that dishonest Mathematica-in-Rust project we saw last week.
Personally I use LaTeX for anything I have to write as pdf, I understand many critics but... So far is The Tool to makes good typesetting. PostScript can do nearly the same at a harder effort for the user, Typist can't match, others are just LaTeX wrappers or can't deliver anything decent.
The problem is that today we have a massive gap in development: there was a time when high-quality FLOSS development existed, followed by an era of resting on one's laurels while creating very little, mostly just stuff built on top of existing systems in an attempt to simplify things, which only resulted in making them more complex and fragile, with zero innovation.
Today, we have generations of developers who simply don't know classic FLOSS tools beyond the surface level and lack the technical background to create new ones that aren't dependent on the tech giants. This is because obsolete universities have de facto trained legions of big tech labourers rather than autonomous technicians capable of standing on their own two feet.
The issue is that there was never a real desire to give "the power of computing" to end users. Consequently, at the first opportunity, the desktop was undermined and rejected to keep everyone dependent on someone else's services. Now, young developers don't know how to evolve back towards the desktop, even though they sense, without fully understanding, that this is the right way forward.
We are losing decades of potential evolution with repercussions for centuries to come, just to feed a handful of people who profit from others' ignorance.
So, while it's true that on one hand we have excellent tools that are obsolete, clunky, and difficult to integrate today, it's also true that on the other hand we have a void. This is because the foundations of modern software are flawed and unsustainable, created solely for the interests of Big Tech. Either we move past this or we head for ruin, as has been happening for some time now; eventually, it will be impossible to carry on and we'll have to start again from scratch, with enormous costs, delays, and damage.
I wonder what's the status of LaTeX 3[1][2]. Also, it would be nice to have an automation in the style of Tectonic[3][4] (which looks like a dead project itself) out of the box.
Seems like an admirable project but they’re building on creaky foundations. Even the way TexLive is released feels like something from academia than a real piece of software.
Here's the list of notable changes in TeX Live 2026 [0]. LaTeX is released independently from TeX Live, so looking through its changelog [1] is also helpful if you haven't updated recently.
After quite some time, and actually after reading this post[0], I took another look at GNU Texmacs, this time with a little more depth and patience. And indeed, the program is an incredibly powerful tool for creating beautiful documents. I'm also currently on a roll where I'm reappreciating the philosophical advantages of WYSIWYG. Anyway, for me it's definitely an insider tip for anyone who is annoyed by LaTeX and is open enough to try WYSWYG.
I recently had good luck writing a paper in org-mode. The .tex export has been around forever but I never really played with it - unlike other Emacs users, I don't actually use org-mode that much.
But in the end, it worked surprisingly well. Mind you, I didn't have anything too fancy in the paper (no figures, minipages, tikz, etc...), so that made the task very easy. But it was a good workflow:
- Write org-mode text in left buffer.
- Have Emacs issue a .tex export on save.
- Have the document automatically compile when .tex files are newer than the .pdf file
- Have the right buffer show and automatically reload the pdf file.
That made it so I could just write stuff in the left buffer and on save, the pdf in the right buffer would update and reflect the last changes. I found that a quite pleasant setup.
I've recently made a dozen vastly different projects with Typst, ALL of which would have created dependency hell, syntax noise, and hours of extra pointless work in Latex. It's such a clear win at this point it's embarrassing.
I've also started using typst for some projects.
I am slowly getting used to the syntax. But it's a process for me.
I also still have latex projects/docs
After delivering my thesis in LaTeX, I never bothered with it again, even at CERN back in 2003 most folks were using a mixture of Word and FrameMaker, with templates to have a TeX like paper output.
Congrats to all the TeXLive team on a new release.
If you're stuck on something LaTeX related, remember there's the latest edition to The LaTex Companion. It even has an appendix explaining the (in)famously cryptic LaTeX/TeX error messages:
If you’re installing this on a fresh machine, the network installer is usually the smoother option. The full ISO is great if you’re setting up multiple systems or need an offline install, but for most people the net install saves some headaches.
This comment section has made it clear to me (and maybe others that use some of these tools every 10 years) that just finding the correct project/binary if you want to use TeX can be... interesting :)
I recently co-authored an article [0] that attempts to explain the various engines and formats.
My personal recommendation would be to just always use "lualatex", or "pdflatex" if you have older documents that won't work with LuaLaTeX for some reason. I'm also a big fan of ConTeXt [2], but I realize that that isn't a practical option for most people.
One thing I like about a full install of TeX Live is it comes with a large number of amazing manuals in PDF form; perfect for reading when bored on the plane without Internet access.
Look for /texmf-dist/doc/fonts/memdesign/memdesign.pdf if you want a fun non-technical one.
I found out the other day that llama.cpp can work with PDF images offline without Internet connection. Combine with local Rustdoc and TeXLive, playing with plan TeX becomes fun again.
SwiftLatex, TexLyre and StellarLatex seem to be exactly this. Apparently this is something a lot of people want to see in the world, awesome stuff. I wonder what's the performance like between native XeLaTex and these wasm version and if it will be Overleaf's demise if these solutions can be easily self-hosted by organizations without worrying about the server getting bogged down by compile jobs.
You can still install old versions going back to the 90s [0]. If you specifically want to update/install a package on a current installation of TeX Live 2025, you just need to run
tlmgr repository set https://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/historic/systems/texlive/2025/tlnet-final
(You can replace that URL with any of the historic mirrors in [0])
[+] [-] thangalin|4 days ago|reply
https://wiki.contextgarden.net/
It's a monolithic kernel with a relatively sane collection of "setup" macros that, by and large, can accomplish much of what LaTeX and its packages can do.
If you're curious about how to build TeX from scratch, have a look at my TeX.SE answer:
https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/576314/2148
I'd imagine making a FOSS port in Rust that has non-cryptic error messages wouldn't be a multi-year project using modern GPTs.
[+] [-] ilyagr|3 days ago|reply
How much more compatible with LaTeX is ConTeXt than typst? For example, is there tikz for ConTeXt?
[+] [-] dataflow|4 days ago|reply
> It's a monolithic kernel with a relatively sane collection of "setup" macros that, by and large, can accomplish much of what LaTeX and its packages can do.
I don't know what constitutes "sane", but I literally just downloaded and installed it right now because you mentioned it, and it choked on a trivial hello world:
...which might explain why it goes unmentioned?I feel like this is gonna be a tougher sell than you expect. How the heck is a user expected to switch to ConTeXt?
[+] [-] Copyrightest|4 days ago|reply
The reason TeX is written in a 1984 dialect of Pascal is that the typesetting bugs have been solved in a completely specified language; it is much easier to write a transpiler for Pascal->C than to rewrite TeX. Asking an LLM to rewrite it in the language-du-jour is a huge cost for very little benefit.
BTW it has been so depressing in the last few months to see LLM-generated projects make claims about performance/accuracy, but there is no benchmarking code on Github and the "thousands of tests" are all useless happy paths. I am sure we will see some grifter claim that Claude rewrote TeX and I am sure dozens of credulous HN users will take it seriously. But we won't see a useful rewrite. It'll be resume-oriented slop like that dishonest Mathematica-in-Rust project we saw last week.
[+] [-] kkfx|4 days ago|reply
The problem is that today we have a massive gap in development: there was a time when high-quality FLOSS development existed, followed by an era of resting on one's laurels while creating very little, mostly just stuff built on top of existing systems in an attempt to simplify things, which only resulted in making them more complex and fragile, with zero innovation.
Today, we have generations of developers who simply don't know classic FLOSS tools beyond the surface level and lack the technical background to create new ones that aren't dependent on the tech giants. This is because obsolete universities have de facto trained legions of big tech labourers rather than autonomous technicians capable of standing on their own two feet.
The issue is that there was never a real desire to give "the power of computing" to end users. Consequently, at the first opportunity, the desktop was undermined and rejected to keep everyone dependent on someone else's services. Now, young developers don't know how to evolve back towards the desktop, even though they sense, without fully understanding, that this is the right way forward.
We are losing decades of potential evolution with repercussions for centuries to come, just to feed a handful of people who profit from others' ignorance.
So, while it's true that on one hand we have excellent tools that are obsolete, clunky, and difficult to integrate today, it's also true that on the other hand we have a void. This is because the foundations of modern software are flawed and unsustainable, created solely for the interests of Big Tech. Either we move past this or we head for ruin, as has been happening for some time now; eventually, it will be impossible to carry on and we'll have to start again from scratch, with enormous costs, delays, and damage.
[+] [-] high_priest|1 day ago|reply
And I have no idea how it could be even remotely possible for a youngling to discover the same things in the torrent of sloppy SaaS.
Do you know of a "hitchikers guide to the FLOSS galaxy" that could teach the ways of the elders, from the ground up?
[+] [-] xvilka|4 days ago|reply
[1] https://www.latex-project.org/latex3/
[2] https://github.com/latex3/latex3
[3] http://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/
[4] https://github.com/tectonic-typesetting/tectonic/
[+] [-] gucci-on-fleek|4 days ago|reply
It's either already here or never happening, depending on your perspective [0] [1].
> it would be nice to have an automation in the style of Tectonic
What do you mean by "automation"?
[0]: https://www.texdev.net/2024/11/11/the-mythical-latex3
[1]: https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb44-1/tb136mitt-history.pdf#page=5
[+] [-] maxnoe|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] alxhslm|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] gucci-on-fleek|4 days ago|reply
[0]: https://tug.org/texlive/doc/texlive-en/texlive-en.html#x1-94...
[1]: https://www.latex-project.org/news/latex2e-news/ltnews.pdf#i...
[+] [-] __mharrison__|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] smartmic|4 days ago|reply
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47152982
[+] [-] kleiba|4 days ago|reply
But in the end, it worked surprisingly well. Mind you, I didn't have anything too fancy in the paper (no figures, minipages, tikz, etc...), so that made the task very easy. But it was a good workflow:
That made it so I could just write stuff in the left buffer and on save, the pdf in the right buffer would update and reflect the last changes. I found that a quite pleasant setup.[+] [-] netbioserror|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] anotherpaul|4 days ago|reply
So happy to see new texlive as well
[+] [-] xvilka|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] alxhslm|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] mastermage|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] sombragris|4 days ago|reply
If you're stuck on something LaTeX related, remember there's the latest edition to The LaTex Companion. It even has an appendix explaining the (in)famously cryptic LaTeX/TeX error messages:
https://latex-project.org/help/books/
There's also, among other resources, the great LaTeX Font Catalogue: https://tug.org/FontCatalogue/
Enjoy the new release!
[+] [-] gucci-on-fleek|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] KeplerBoy|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] deep1283|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] dngray|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] wink|4 days ago|reply
https://www.tug.org/levels.html seems like a good start
[+] [-] gucci-on-fleek|3 days ago|reply
My personal recommendation would be to just always use "lualatex", or "pdflatex" if you have older documents that won't work with LuaLaTeX for some reason. I'm also a big fan of ConTeXt [2], but I realize that that isn't a practical option for most people.
[0]: https://tug.org/members/TUGboat/tb46-3/tb144berry-engines-fo... [1]
[1]: Paywalled until April, sorry. Email me and I can send you a copy though (this offer is open to anybody).
[2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47272239
[+] [-] bombcar|4 days ago|reply
Look for /texmf-dist/doc/fonts/memdesign/memdesign.pdf if you want a fun non-technical one.
[+] [-] ontouchstart|3 days ago|reply
https://ontouchstart.github.io/rabbit-holes/tex_rabbit_hole_...
[+] [-] theanonymousone|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] KeplerBoy|4 days ago|reply
https://www.swiftlatex.com/
https://arxtect.github.io/StellarLatexLanding
https://texlyre.github.io/
[+] [-] dash2|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] gucci-on-fleek|4 days ago|reply
[0]: https://tug.org/historic/
[+] [-] mono442|4 days ago|reply
[+] [-] shablulman|4 days ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kumarvvr|4 days ago|reply
The system is flexible and simple.
Used TeX for the same and had to lose sanity for it to even work semi well.