Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

SILE VS GitHub Flavored Markdown

Compare SILE VS GitHub Flavored Markdown and see what are their differences

SILE logo SILE

SILE is a typesetting system inspired by TeX and InDesign, but seeks to be more flexible...

GitHub Flavored Markdown logo GitHub Flavored Markdown

GitHub uses "GitHub Flavored Markdown," or GFM, across the site--in issues, comments, and...
  • SILE Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-25
  • GitHub Flavored Markdown Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

SILE features and specs

  • Advanced Typesetting Features
    SILE stands out for its sophisticated typesetting capabilities, which include support for complex scripts, microtypography, grid-based layout, and multilingual typesetting. This makes it an excellent choice for academic publishing and documents requiring precise control over layout.
  • Extensibility
    SILE is highly extensible, allowing users to customize its functionality with Lua scripts. This flexibility enables advanced users to tailor the typesetting system to their specific needs.
  • Lightweight and Fast
    Being lightweight and designed to be fast, SILE can handle large documents efficiently without the bloat associated with some other typesetting systems. This makes it suitable for use in environments with limited resources.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, SILE offers transparency and the ability to contribute to its development. Users can freely access, modify, and distribute the source code.
  • Compatible with Different Formats
    SILE can easily integrate with other tools and formats, supporting outputs like PDF, and can be used in conjunction with other document processing tools.

Possible disadvantages of SILE

  • Learning Curve
    SILE has a steeper learning curve compared to some other typesetting systems. Users need to have a good grasp of Lua scripting to fully leverage its capabilities.
  • Limited Community and Resources
    Compared to more established typesetting systems like TeX, SILE has a smaller user base and community, which may result in fewer available resources, tutorials, and third-party tools.
  • Niche Usage
    Because SILE is highly specialized and focuses on typesetting, it may not be the best choice for users looking for an all-in-one document editor or simpler typesetting needs.
  • Potential Compatibility Issues
    While SILE can output to common formats, integrating it into existing workflows with specific dependencies may require additional configuration and handling.

GitHub Flavored Markdown features and specs

  • Widespread Usage
    GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) is widely used in the GitHub community, making it a popular choice for collaborating on open-source projects and documenting code repositories.
  • Enhanced Features
    GFM extends the standard Markdown with additional features like tables, strikethrough, and syntax highlighting, allowing for more expressive and informative content.
  • Version Control Integration
    GFM is seamlessly integrated with GitHub’s version control system, making it easy to track changes, collaborate on documentation, and propose updates through pull requests.
  • Live Preview
    GitHub provides a live preview of Markdown files, which helps users see how their Markdown will render, ensuring the final document looks as expected.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Since GFM is based on Markdown, documents can be easily shared and rendered across different platforms and services, retaining consistent formatting.

Possible disadvantages of GitHub Flavored Markdown

  • Limited Advanced Formatting
    While GFM offers several enhancements over standard Markdown, it still lacks support for some advanced formatting options found in richer text editors or other markup languages.
  • GitHub Dependency
    GFM is primarily designed to work within the GitHub ecosystem, which can limit usefulness outside of GitHub, especially if using features specific to GFM.
  • Learning Curve
    Users familiar with standard Markdown might need to learn the additional syntax and features of GFM, which can be an initial barrier for some.
  • Consistency Issues
    Rendering consistency might vary when GFM documents are viewed outside of GitHub, as some features might not be supported in other Markdown processors.

SILE videos

Azteca - Sile Feat. NANE, Amuly & Jakoban (Official Video)

More videos:

  • Review - Sile beach and resort

GitHub Flavored Markdown videos

Demystifying Markdown – Learn GitHub flavored Markdown (GFM) on Skillshare | Clyde D'Souza

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SILE and GitHub Flavored Markdown)
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Documentation
39 39%
61% 61
Documentation As A Service & Tools
Knowledge Base
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using SILE and GitHub Flavored Markdown. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, SILE seems to be a lot more popular than GitHub Flavored Markdown. While we know about 12 links to SILE, we've tracked only 1 mention of GitHub Flavored Markdown. 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.

SILE mentions (12)

  • LaTeX and AsciiDoc
    I'm allergic to LaTeX ;-), but initially used SILE, which is a modern reimagining of TeX/LaTeX. It reads Markdown natively, so I could push the content in directly and style it for the printed page. However, SILE is still very early in development, and I had some major problems with baseline alignment. It turned out to be far less of a pain to do it in InDesign, even with the need to write conversion scripts. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Typst, a modern LaTeX alternative written in Rust, is now open source
    What are your thoughts on SILE (https://sile-typesetter.org/)? I think it’s the tool roughly in this space, and “write djot -> SILE convertor” is on my hobby todo list. I am 95% sure in the djot part here, but I am fairly naive when it comes to typography, and can’t really estimate the SILE part. Source: about 2 years ago
  • TeXmacs “The Jolly Writer” book now available as pdf download
    TeX/LaTeX is so addictive to use ... It's such a quirky and messy ecosystem. So organically grown over decades. Doing any complex layout is a struggle of trial and error and searching for advise, there's so many ways to do the same thing, you end up combining two dozens sometimes subtly incompatible packages, you end up gardening your own templates over time with meticulously embedded commentary to keep the... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: LaTeX is great. Has anyone tried to build something better?
    I actually have really enjoyed SiLE[0] as a replacement. The only caveat being that it has no where near the ecosystem that LaTeX has built up over the years. I do think that it is better under the hood than LaTeX though and much easier to customize. [0]: https://sile-typesetter.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Writing my PhD using groff
    Simon Cozens spent some time writing a new typesetter called SILE:
      https://sile-typesetter.org/.
    - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
View more

GitHub Flavored Markdown mentions (1)

  • Resources for proper putting of code on to GitHub ?
    Not sure quite what you mean. Are you asking "what should I put on GitHub" or "how to make it look pretty?" For the latter, check out https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/writing-on-github. Source: about 2 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing SILE and GitHub Flavored Markdown, you can also consider the following products

Tectonic typesetting - A modernized, complete, standalone TeX/LaTeX engine.

pandoc - Pandoc is a Haskell library for converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line...

Groff - The groff (GNU troff) software is a typesetting package which reads plain text mixed with...

Text::Amuse - Markup language for AMuseWiki.

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

Caoutchouc - Typesetting language using Markdown and AsciiMath to format documents