Re: Using texinfo for works that are not software-related

[Patrice Dumas]

On Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 06:54:45AM +0000, Oleander wrote:
> As far as I know latex3 does not support exporting to html, epub,
> ascii and I need those formats. I should have explained it better but
> I don't need all the formatting options latex offers since I mostly
> write prose with some code/quote blocks.
> 
> By "good things" I meant semantic elements, indexes, cross references.

Also it is now possible to export to LaTeX.

> I've explored other markup languages but I've always been on the fence
> about those and I keep switching.
> 
> Markdown does not support indexes so I tend to exclude it for long
> documentation.
> 
> Org Mode is great but it lacks semantic elements besides blocks.
> 
> Asciidoc: good markup syntax and support semantic elements but I read
> the tooling leaves something to be desired.
> 
> Restructured text: great tooling but I don't like the syntax of some
> elements.

At some point, I considered doing converters for those kind of markup
languages as I liked in general their lightweight syntax, but in general
they lacked some important features of Texinfo, either footnotes,
indices, or that kind of constructs.  It was some time ago, so maybe it
evolved, but I am not surprised that you find them lacking in some
features available in Texinfo.

For general purpose writing, I think that the main feature lacking in
Texinfo is support for bibliographies.

-- 
Pat