Web page generator like LaTeX

Question

forgive if this is dumb. I was wondering if there was any such thing like LaTeX, by which you could write in a markup and compile it to a whole web page (of course with CSS and other styling). I've heard of lightweight markup languages like Textile. But I don't think they serve my purpose.

Answer 1

TeX4ht would allow you to use LaTeX source directly to produce HTML webpages; it typically produces multiple files from a single .tex source. I think of it as a conversion tool, but it could be used directly for creation.

But I have to agree that your question is a little odd. HTML is itself a mark-up language, not terribly different from LaTeX; it would help to know exactly what you're after if it's not just that.

I would advise against using WYSIWYG HTML editors. All the ones I've tried are terrible. And if you're already used to editing LaTeX, learning to mark-up things up directly in HTML won't be a difficult transition.

Answer 2

Your best bet is not to keep the information using two languages.
Webpages are written in HTML, which can be edited as a full language of its own.

It's best to start with a free HTML WYSIWYG Editor.

The most powerful of then is Netbeans. It started life as a Java Editor but with recent releases has developed into a powerful text editor for web scripting.

If that's too technical to begin with, use KompoZer, designed for non-technical computer users who want to create an attractive web site without needing to know HTML.

Another advanced editor is HTML-Kit, which began as a specialized HTML editor but now has so many plugins that it is a highly customizable and extensible development environment.

There are also quite a few commercial HTML WYSIWYG Editors.

Answer 3

Jekyll is such a system, which I can highly recommend.

Answer 4

For what you're looking to do, Template Toolkit (TT; http://template-toolkit.org/) might be a good option. It's a templating language that, among other things, will allow you to insert common HTML or CSS code into multiple pages just by linking to a file containing that code. Here's an example from their About page:

[% INCLUDE header title="My First Example" %]
<p>
  Hello World!
</p>
[% INCLUDE footer copyright="2007 Arthur Dent" %]

It can do much more than this, too. This other example from their website shows how TT can be usedis similar to LaTeX's citation syntax:

[% person = { 
     name    = 'Tom'
     email   = 'tom@tt2.org'
   }
%]
[% person.name  %]          # Tom
[% person.email %]          # tom@tt2.org

Komodo Edit is a free and open-source web language editor that has syntax colouring for Template Toolkit. I hope this helps!