caoutchouc
Markdown for formatting + AsciiMath for math + Latex for the weird stuff
What is caoutchouc?
A replacement for LaTeX based on Markdown and AsciiMath.
Why use caoutchouc?
Here's the same document written in both LaTeX and Caoutchouc:
| LaTeX | Caoutchouc |
|---|---|
| \documentclass{article} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \begin{document} \section{Introduction} $$\dfrac{1\cdot \alpha}{2}$$ \begin{figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=9cm]{image} \caption{A caption} \end{figure} \end{document} |
# Introduction €€(1*alpha)/2€€  |
It's easy to see that the Caoutchouc version is much more readable, easy, simple and less verbose.
For a detailed explanation of the improvements that Caouchouc brings over LaTeX, read Why was caoutchouc created?.
Try it!
Go to ShareCaou.com and login using:
email: test@test.com
password: caoutchouc
The site could be slow and may collapse under heavy load, as it's running on a basic VPS.
Install
Pre-requisites: A local installation of pandoc 2.2.1 and texlive.
npm install -g caou
Usage
caou file.md # Generates file.pdf
For more information about the caou compiler, run man caou.
If you'd like to find out more about caoutchouc, go to caoutchouc.io.
Caoutchouc example
| Caoutchouc | Result |
|---|---|
| # Caoutchouc - **Markdown**[^1] - **Math** made easy: €1+2*sqrt(2)-pi+alpha/(3.2-1)€ - **LaTeX** can be directly embedded: \usepackage{xcolor} \colorbox{red}{Colored text!} $$x\overset{\Bbb{R}}{+} y=x\overset{\Bbb{Q}}{+} y$$ [^1]: extended with footnotes and many other goodies from pandoc-flavoured markdown |
 |
Go to caoutchouc.io for proper documentation.
Contributing
All contributions are welcome but help is specially appreciated in the following tasks:
- Set up scalable hosting for ShareCaou (currently it's in a simple vps). I can pay for all the hosting costs.
- Create a logo for Caoutchouc (primary use will be in ShareCaou).
- Provide feedback on how to improve it, bugs that you find...
Why is it called caoutchouc?
Caoutchouc is the name that the indigenous people of South America used for the rubber material that is obtained from vulcanizing latex (the tree sap).
What makes caoutchouc different from plain pandoc?
- AsciiMath: pandoc doesn't support it, caoutchouc does.
- LaTeX: caoutchouc supports the direct embedding of LaTeX but pandoc doesn't (it does in an undocumented way which is extremely limited, caoutchouc improves this).
- Ease of use: ShareCaou makes caoutchouc much easier to use for most people compared to pandoc (which at the very least requires a local installation of pandoc & texlive).
Acknowledgements
- Pandoc is a fundamental component of caoutchouc.
- The code used to convert asciimath to latex was taken from here. For more information check the License text in
ASCIIMathTeXImg.js.