tex — go-tex

A pure-Go (no cgo) processor for a practical subset of LaTeX documents. It does more than render math: it tokenizes with TeX category codes, expands user macros (\def, \newcommand/\renewcommand with mandatory and optional arguments, \let), parses document structure, and emits semantic HTML with math typeset to inline SVG by go-tex/math. No TeX engine binary, no cgo, no server; it compiles to GOOS=js/wasm.

html, _ := tex.RenderHTML(`\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}
\title{Demo}\author{go-tex}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\section{Intro}
A \textbf{bold} claim about $\R^n$ and a display:
\[ \int_0^\infty e^{-x^2}\,dx = \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2} \]
\begin{itemize}\item first \item second\end{itemize}
\end{document}`)

What it processes

• Macros — \newcommand{\name}[n][opt]{body} (mandatory + one optional arg), \renewcommand, \providecommand, TeX \def\name#1#2{body}, and \let. Macros expand everywhere, including inside math.
• Structure — \documentclass/\usepackage (consumed), \title/\author/ \date/\maketitle, \section/\subsection/\subsubsection/\paragraph, paragraphs (blank lines).
• Inline formatting — \textbf, \textit/\emph, \texttt, \underline, \textsc, \\/\newline.
• Lists & blocks — itemize, enumerate, \item, quote, center, verbatim.
• Math — $…$, \(…\) (inline) and $$…$$, \[…\], equation, displaymath, align (display), typeset to SVG; a malformed formula degrades to an error span rather than failing the document.
• Text niceties — \% \& \_ \$ \# \{ \}, ~, \ldots, and text accents (\'e→é, \"o→ö, …, precomposed to NFC).

Scope — honest limits

This is the front of a TeX engine (the "mouth" + a document builder), not a replacement for a TeX distribution (TeXLive). There is no page/line breaking, no float/table/figure model, no counters/cross-references/bibliography, no package ecosystem, and no PDF/DVI back-end — the output is HTML. Unknown commands are dropped best-effort. Full LaTeX (real line-breaking, packages, PDF) is the larger ongoing go-tex engine effort; this package is a working, useful foundation and a proof that processing documents (not just rendering math) is tractable in pure Go.

Install

go get github.com/go-tex/tex

Command

cmd/gotex reads a .tex file (or stdin) and writes an HTML document:

go run ./cmd/gotex paper.tex > paper.html

Tests

Statement coverage is held at 100% (tokenizer, macro expander, document processor, and every end-of-input guard), go vet clean, and green across the six 64-bit Go targets plus js/wasm and wasip1/wasm.

go test ./...

License

BSD-3-Clause — see LICENSE. Copyright the go-tex/tex authors. The embedded math font (via go-tex/math) is STIX Two Math, under the SIL OFL.