I hope this was intended as a joke? Most users struggle with simple typesetting conventions like underscore/asterisk. HTML tags (or CSS) are out of reach for the vast majority. TeX isn't even part of the known universe for users!

> HTML tags (or CSS) are out of reach for the vast majority

CSS sure, but most people can learn the basic html tags in a minute. Same for the basic latex conventions.

I think this is a case where struggling == "doesn't want to learn". It's important to distinguish so you don't waste time trying to help the latter.

Not the worst idea. However not the best. Something between that and markdown.

Markdown is a bad joke.

It's really fine for casual documentation. I wouldn't write a book or a paper in it though.

For a straight-text book, actually, Markdown is excellent. You can include images, or for technical content, tables, easily.

Technical papers with formulae and complex references are slightly more detailed, but that ends up being gloss. Even LaTeX for a simple text is quite minimal (though you need the starting template).

Source: I've made something of a hobby of marking up source docs into HTML, LaTeX, and Markdown. Of the set, Markdown would be my first go-to, and I've used it for some book-length projects.

Example here: https://ello.co/dredmorbius/post/lhw2eq4qmnnwxijlcrfyba

> For a straight-text book, actually, Markdown is excellent. You can include images, or for technical content, tables, easily.

I would probably use org-mode for that.

Another solid option, yes.

R Markdown is a joy to use and people even do write books with it!