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Pandoc

248
64
+ 1
3
Sphinx

1K
297
+ 1
32
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Pandoc vs Sphinx: What are the differences?

  1. Markdown Support: Pandoc has excellent support for Markdown, allowing users to write content in a simple and readable format and then convert it to various output formats such as HTML or PDF. Sphinx, on the other hand, primarily relies on reStructuredText for documenting technical projects, which has a steeper learning curve and might not be as straightforward for those familiar with Markdown.

  2. Documentation Focus: While both Pandoc and Sphinx can be used for documentation purposes, Sphinx is specifically designed for creating technical and API documentation, making it a preferred choice for developers and programmers. Pandoc, on the other hand, is more versatile and can be utilized for various documentation types, including academic papers, books, and web content.

  3. Extensibility: Sphinx offers a powerful extension mechanism that allows users to customize and extend its core functionality. This feature is especially useful when creating complex technical documentation, as it allows for the integration of additional tools and functionalities seamlessly. In contrast, Pandoc provides a limited extension mechanism and may require more manual customization to achieve the desired output.

  4. Built-in Static Site Generator: Sphinx comes with a built-in static site generator, enabling users to easily create and maintain a static website from their documentation. This is particularly advantageous for projects requiring continuous updates and live documentation. Pandoc, however, does not provide a built-in site generator and might require additional tools or workflows to achieve a similar result.

  5. Output Formats: Pandoc supports an extensive range of output formats, including HTML, PDF, EPUB, and DOCX, making it highly versatile in terms of delivering content in various formats. Sphinx, on the other hand, primarily focuses on generating HTML and PDF output, which may limit its capabilities for projects requiring other formats, such as ebooks or Word documents.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Both Pandoc and Sphinx have active communities and ecosystems around them, providing users with resources, plugins, and support. However, Sphinx's community is more oriented towards the technical and developer community, providing a wide range of extensions, themes, and integrations specifically tailored for technical documentation. Pandoc's community, on the other hand, caters to a broader range of use cases, including academia, publishing, and general document conversion.

In summary, Pandoc and Sphinx differ in terms of their focus (versatility vs. technical documentation), support for Markdown, extension mechanisms, built-in site generation, output formats, and community ecosystems. Choosing between them primarily depends on the specific needs and requirements of the documentation project at hand.

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Pros of Pandoc
Pros of Sphinx
  • 2
    Markdown
  • 1
    More popular and active on github
  • 16
    Fast
  • 9
    Simple deployment
  • 6
    Open source
  • 1
    Lots of extentions

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What is Pandoc?

It is a free and open-source document converter, widely used as a writing tool and as a basis for publishing workflows. It converts files from one markup format into another. It can convert documents in (several dialects of) Markdown, reStructuredText, textile, HTML, DocBook, LaTeX, MediaWiki markup, TWiki and many more.

What is Sphinx?

It lets you either batch index and search data stored in an SQL database, NoSQL storage, or just files quickly and easily — or index and search data on the fly, working with it pretty much as with a database server.

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What are some alternatives to Pandoc and Sphinx?
wkhtmltopdf
wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage are command line tools to render HTML into PDF and various image formats using the QT Webkit rendering engine. These run entirely "headless" and do not require a display or display service.
Markdown
Markdown is two things: (1) a plain text formatting syntax; and (2) a software tool, written in Perl, that converts the plain text formatting to HTML.
Jekyll
Think of Jekyll as a file-based CMS, without all the complexity. Jekyll takes your content, renders Markdown and Liquid templates, and spits out a complete, static website ready to be served by Apache, Nginx or another web server. Jekyll is the engine behind GitHub Pages, which you can use to host sites right from your GitHub repositories.
Asciidoctor
It is a fast, open source text processor and publishing toolchain for converting AsciiDoc content to HTML5, DocBook, PDF, and other formats. Asciidoctor is written in Ruby and runs on all major operating systems
pdfmake
pdfmake, client/server side PDF printing in pure JavaScript.
See all alternatives