SATySFi (pronounced in the same way as the verb “satisfy” in English) is a new typesetting system equipped with a statically-typed, functional programming language. It consists mainly of two “layers” ― the text layer and the program layer. The former is for writing documents in LaTeX-like syntax. The latter, which has OCaml-like syntax, is for defining functions and commands. SATySFi enables you to write documents markuped with flexible commands of your own making. In addition, its informative type error reporting will be a good help to your writing.
The main problem is that a lot of the documentation is in japanese.
I've been using texmacs for a little over year now, and have loved it. For me, the nicest part is much simpler creation and editing of tables and aligned math. I also appreciate the image insertion; in LaTeX my images often end up not quite where I want them (I know, you can specify "here" for your images, but I'd prefer if they were just "there" to start with). Of course, depending on your use case, your mileage may vary.
For those who expect troff to be an ancient relic, Neatroff and Heirloom troff include modern features like microtypography. troff is still great for a lot of applications.
My needs are pretty simple - a program that makes grocery lists that I print. groff with the ms macros works very well. I used to use LaTeX but never figured out how to use it without installing gigabytes of stuff. This is my fault - surely I could have learned plain TeX, or learned how to work the TeX distribution to only install the stuff I needed. But ultimately it was just easier to get going with groff.
