I’m sure that the Scrivener is aimed at the academic/latex world, but it does partially support this via the MMD. However, that just doesn’t cut it, because scientists that use latex would then have to learn a new markup language. It would be better if there was some sort of ‘plugin’ functionality for using latex directly. For example, I could see Scrivener adopting the way Latexian works. If Latexian and Scrivener could be combined, it would blow TeXShop out of the water and would be a very attractive piece of software for the academic community. I would definitely pay for something like that.
It shouldn’t be too hard to implement either. Currently, to use latex I compile by scrivener document into a plain text file and then open up the text file in TeXShop in order to compile it.
Wait… does scrivener support AppleScripting? I guess I could almost achieve the functionality that I want if I wrote an AppleScript to do this.
I’d do some browsing around in the MultiMarkdown sub-forum. A number of LaTeX users have posted tips and tricks for using Scrivener’s features to generate clean LaTeX without getting in the way of things, and letting you compose in LaTeX as you will.
MultiMarkdown isn’t really meant to be a “LaTeX front-end”. It works great for that, but the system is really an engine for the production of documents of any kind, and is thus a good “nexus” format. That I said I prefer it to writing raw LateX, even though I’m fairly fluent in it, and I know I’m not alone in that, especially since the markup is drop-dead simple and the kind of thing you can pick up in a few minutes. Where it gets a little more ornery is when the document diverges from being strictly structural.
While Scrivener does not yet have AppleScript (and that is something on the grand list), for now you can use folder scripts, or third-party tools like Hazel, to do automatic processing on compiled files. This topic has also been discussed quite a bit in the past, and you’ll find some useful pre-existing scripts that have been created, as well as workflow tips.