(The author:) This issue is all about interfaces. To "use HTML" does not mean "write your papers in HTML". It means "present the final result in an HTML-compatible format", so that any user could view it seamlessly and fluidly. Fluidly means they should be able to click on a citation and see it appear e.g.
The HTML standard, which expressly makes room for foreign
technologies, when viewed as a standard is immensely more powerful than good old Latex. And in fact, if typesetting is your concern, you will already find JS libraries addressing this.
The big thing is: the HTML standard allows for future technologies to be embedded in your docs. The Latex linguistic ecosystem does not.
This point is only made clearer when one realizes that the end goal "to have a paper in my hand" is an artifact of past technologies. Going forward, "having a paper in your hands" will not stand as the end-goal of intellectual effort. Most certainly, intellectual work will have to be presented in a (a) standardized and (b) highly accessible and (c) highly interactive manner. Only HTML fits the bill.
It is clear that academia will switch to HTML. I am just saying: Get on with it. Why wait.
Comments
(The author:) This issue is all about interfaces. To "use HTML" does not mean "write your papers in HTML". It means "present the final result in an HTML-compatible format", so that any user could view it seamlessly and fluidly. Fluidly means they should be able to click on a citation and see it appear e.g.
The HTML standard, which expressly makes room for foreign technologies, when viewed as a standard is immensely more powerful than good old Latex. And in fact, if typesetting is your concern, you will already find JS libraries addressing this.
The big thing is: the HTML standard allows for future technologies to be embedded in your docs. The Latex linguistic ecosystem does not.
This point is only made clearer when one realizes that the end goal "to have a paper in my hand" is an artifact of past technologies. Going forward, "having a paper in your hands" will not stand as the end-goal of intellectual effort. Most certainly, intellectual work will have to be presented in a (a) standardized and (b) highly accessible and (c) highly interactive manner. Only HTML fits the bill.
It is clear that academia will switch to HTML. I am just saying: Get on with it. Why wait.