[texhax] Tex and LaTex vs. ReportLab (http://www.reportlab.org/)

[hgi at shaw.ca]

Hi!

I started a newsletter at our large government organization, mainly for 
Executive and everyone loves it.  The distribution list is expanding 
constantly.

Of course content is one secret to success with a newsletter.  However, one 
huge plus is that it looks so darn GREAT -  it is written in LaTex.  I love 
LaTex.  It has so many options and there is so much that you can do with Tex 
and LaTex.

Our Systems Admin is interested in the possibility of converting our 
newsletter into Python-based ReportLab.  He is a Python guy (not that this 
is the main consideration in what he is suggesting).

So I am wondering, objectively are there merits of Tex and LaTex over using 
ReportLab?

By the way, I am just finishing writing something in Python that allows 
people over the web to submit material to my newsletter and another program 
that takes all this stuff and wraps the text with LaTex commands.  So 
although ReportLab can entirely generate a pdf from within itself 
(programmatically), my setup will ultimately be pretty automated, too.

So what are the pluses and minuses of using Tex and LaTex vs. ReportLab.  I 
must confess that I hope to keep Tex and LaTex working for our organization 
. . .

Thanks all!

-Warren