deplate is a ruby based tool for converting documents written in wiki-like markup to LaTeX, HTML, “HTML slides”, or docbook. It supports page templates, embedded LaTeX code, footnotes, citations, bibliographies, automatic generation of an index, table of contents etc. It can be used to create web pages and (via LaTeX or Docbook) high-quality printouts from the same source.

Although originally created as a LaTeX (or word-processor) replacement for “everyday use”, deplate probably isn’t suited for highly technical documents or documents that require sophisticated graphical layout. For other purposes it should work fine. As the html output filter provides menus, templates, indexes, and the like, within some limits, it could also qualify as offline CMS for maintaining small websites. If you want to do something bigger you might want to use a different programm though.

deplate aims to be modular and easily extensible. It is the accompanying converter for the Vim viki plugin. In the family of wiki engines, the “native” deplate markup originated from the emacs-wiki.

deplate reads:

• deplate markup (viki vim plugin) in several variants: full, restricted, template (this markup is explained in Markup and the following chapters)
• ruby’s rdoc

deplate writes:

• HTML: single page, web site (chunked), web-based presentation (chunked & condensed), as PHP page
• LaTeX (which can be converted to dvi, postscript, pdf …)
• Docbook (which can be converted to html, rtf, pdf, xml-fo, man …)
• Really plain text

A note on code quality: This is a personal/private pet project that started off as a miniscule script to quickly convert emacs-wiki pages without emacs. This program is the result of a long series of early morning pre-coffee plumbing and patch-work. It works well for me tough and has proven quite useful.

Example:

• Source for the top-level of this webpage: index.txt