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Show HN: I brought the benefits of LaTeX to non technical users

monsterwriter.app

32 pointsWolfOliver17 comments

I use this one: https://www.lyx.org/; it's free.

The idea of MonsterWriter is to break free of LaTeX and "only" support it as an Export mean (for PDF of LaTeX directly).

With MonsterWriter you also can export into other formats like Markdown, HTML or directly publish on a ghost blog.

Also you do not need to install LaTeX on your system. The typesetting is done on a server. For this the content is encrypted and is only processed in plaintex for the purpose of generating the PDF.

> to break free of LaTeX and "only" support it as an Export mean (for PDF of LaTeX directly)

The same with Lyx; it's even often criticised by LaTeX experts since it hides it very well and it is not particularly well suited to fiddle directly with the generated code.

I've tried it out some time ago; But only to see how it works. Back then I had the impression that e.g making a cross-reference sill requires you to label the figure, heading etc..

But maybe I did not got it right back then.

While both apps serve the same use case right now. The vision for MonsterWriter is to run in the Browser and support real time collaboration.

Or this one: https://www.texmacs.org/; also free, no TeX required.

Link is broken because of the semicolon; Did not know you do not need TeX for this one.

Doesn’t load and no SSL

Don't trust whatever is interpreting the link: https://www.lyx.org

Cert seems to have expired two days ago.

I think they just forgot to renew the certificate. Looks like the right link to me.

Interesting project! It's quite relevant to me as I'm just about to embark on my bachelor's thesis and I've been fiddling around with a few different work flows so I'm definitely going to give it a spin.

A few things I noticed when trialing.

1. Left sidebar, second icon. What's it supposed to do? I'm assuming maybe export but the button doesn't do anything. I couldn't find export at all either, so I'm not sure if it's broken on my machine or if it's a limitation of the trial.

2. The block type options (paragraph, title etc.), I'd like if the options looked more like buttons rather than just plaintext fit in a box. Just a border around the options (or optionally a background color for them) would already be very helpful.

3. Contrast. The left sidebar icons have very low contrast. The border around the blocks also could use a stronger contrast. I wouldn't actually mind seeing each block's borders at all times just to have a visual outline where one ends and the next starts.

4. I haven't tested this, but does the app support different types of citation standards? Both for the source list at the end as well as the inline references inside a text?

5. do we have any type of control of the final exported product? Can we make our own template with fonts and everything set in place or will I have to export it to LaTeX first?

Yes this is supposed to be the export. What OS are you using?

HN hug of death?

> 404 Not Found: Requested route ('www.monsterwriter.app') does not exist.

Is resolved.

Still happens.

hmm, added some more memory. Hope is stable now. 50MB for an nginx serving static content seems a little too less.

Congrats!! This looks really cool, will give it a shot.

If you have any feedback, send me an email. Would be happy to give away a free licence for constructive ideas.

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