Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

reStructuredText VS gnu source-highlight

Compare reStructuredText VS gnu source-highlight and see what are their differences

reStructuredText logo reStructuredText

Invented for Python documentation.

gnu source-highlight logo gnu source-highlight

gnu source-highlight is a command line program that can be used to highlight source code, it supports output to many formats including html, ODF, ANSI and groff.
  • reStructuredText Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-26
  • gnu source-highlight Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-09-23

reStructuredText features and specs

  • Readability
    reStructuredText offers a clean, readable syntax that resembles plain text, making it easy for humans to read and write without requiring special software.
  • Extensibility
    It permits extensions and custom directives, allowing users to create new functionalities and adaptations specific to their needs.
  • Integration
    It is the default markup language for Python documentation and is naturally supported by Sphinx, which makes it suitable for generating detailed and attractive documentation.
  • Semantic Richness
    reStructuredText supports comprehensive semantic markup structures, enabling detailed annotations and proper structuring of documents.

Possible disadvantages of reStructuredText

  • Complexity
    Learning all of the features of reStructuredText can be complex for beginners due to its wide range of functionalities and strict syntax rules.
  • Limited Adoption
    Compared to Markdown, reStructuredText has a smaller user base and community support, which can limit resources and examples available for new users.
  • Tool Support
    While it is well-supported in Python environments, outside this ecosystem, there are fewer tools and editors that provide full support and previews for reStructuredText.
  • Less Forgiving
    The syntax is more rigid and less forgiving of errors compared to some alternatives like Markdown, which means small mistakes can lead to rendering issues.

gnu source-highlight features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to reStructuredText and gnu source-highlight)
Documentation
88 88%
12% 12
Markdown Editor
0 0%
100% 100
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Knowledge Base
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using reStructuredText and gnu source-highlight. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, reStructuredText seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 11 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

reStructuredText mentions (11)

  • Show HN: Tritium – The Legal IDE in Rust
    Much (but not all) of what you are looking for exists in the reStructuredText [1] space. Sphinx [2] is an SSG focused on technical writing about software that you may find worth exploring. Also, the scientific text community has been pushing MyST [3] which is an attempt to take some of the best ideas of reStructuredText and reapply them to Markdown-style syntax as a baseline. The MyST tools are a lot more recent... - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • Writing a book in the age of open source
    I can sympathize with the OP authors' frustration with Markdown and resulting preference for ASCIIDoc (try to format a poem, or a play script, in Markdown). Lots of people have addressed this, and NIH rules supreme -- see reStructured Text[2]. However several comments here mention the convenience of a workflow based on Markdown + GIT. Exactly that workflow is the heart of Leanpub[0]. That site facilitates writing... - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • How To Choose the Best Static Site Generator and Deploy it to Kinsta for Free
    Markup language: Markup language is used to write documents in a way that distinguishes them from plain text. Most SSGs utilize lightweight markup languages, such as Markdown. However, alternatives like AsciiDoc, Textile, and ReStructuredText are also used. These lightweight languages simplify content creation and are converted into HTML during the site generation process. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Packaging Python projects in 2023 from scratch
    Uses Sphinx, reStructuredText And the sphinx-rtd-theme for writing, building And rendering the documentation. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What's the #1 feature that is needed in Obsidian, if one feature is all you get
    If we're dreaming, ReStructed Text support. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

gnu source-highlight mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of gnu source-highlight yet. Tracking of gnu source-highlight recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing reStructuredText and gnu source-highlight, you can also consider the following products

Asciidoctor - In the spirit of free software, everyone is encouraged to help improve this project.

Google Keep - Capture notes, share them with others, and access them from your computer, phone or tablet. Free with a Google account.

Markdown by DaringFireball - Text-to-HTML conversion tool/syntax for web writers, by John Gruber

Typora - A minimal Markdown reading & writing app.

mdbook - Gitbook alternative in Rust

Pygments - Generic syntax highlighter suitable for use in code hosting, forums, wikis or other applications...