Re: Is there a lout package repository?

[Mark Carroll]

Joh-Tob Schäg <address@hidden> writes:

> i used Latex in the past and now want to try something new.
> In Latex there are packages, which provide syntax and symbols for
> chemistry, cryptography and so on.
> Are there such packages in lout?
> Are there package distributions or reprositoires like CTAN?

I am not aware of such. The base Basser Lout distribution itself
includes a good range of stuff and it is designed for easy extension
such that if something's missing, we can usually help you to add your
own version, especially if you don't mind your document production going
via PostScript. (For direct PDF output, Lout can't do quite as much.)

In terms of weird symbols, one caveat is that Lout is rather more
Latin1/Latin2-based, perhaps more, but it's not Unicode. It also needs
afm files for your fonts. I think for one font I wanted I ended up
remapping it somehow to Latin1 then generating the afm file. It's all a
bit of a pain but once done it's done. I'm not sure if there are any
good documents online regarding "how to get modern fonts into Basser
Lout" -- e.g. if you start off with a TrueType Unicode font.

> And last but not least can you recommend any howtos/texts/documentation
> when it comes to writing your own code?

Apart from the font trickiness above, the User's and Expert's Guides
packaged with Lout are both pretty excellent, and definitely ask here
when necessary as a couple of people will be able to point you to
exactly what you need or, more rarely, warn that it'll not be easy.

Personally I find Lout much more cohesive and clean than LaTeX plus
packages. When I'm using LaTeX for anything non-trivial I usually run
into gotchas that I have to google my way around. (Even silly little
things, like footnotes in tables, or what order to use packages in.)
Lout tends not to have all these, "for some weird reason, this thing
that looks like it probably ought to work, actually doesn't".

-- Mark