[pvorb]

Don't write your text in some TeX dialect. It's not worth it.

You can write your text in Markdown and convert it to TeX, DocBook or directly to PDF using Pandoc (https://pandoc.org). In my opinion Markdown is much easier to type and Pandoc gives you everything you'll need for styling your document.

[geoalchimista]

I use both pandoc and LaTeX in my day job. I have to disagree somewhat with your first statement. I think it varies by the use cases.

I usually start a writing project in pandoc Markdown, until at some point I have many equations, figures, or tables that I have to switch to LaTeX to continue. I know pandoc can support all of these elements but it does not give you as much freedom as LaTeX. Equation and theorem numbering, figure and subfigure referencing, fine tuning the layout of a table ... things like these that are natural in LaTeX require extra effort to be done well in Markdown. And of course, there are things that LaTeX does not do well naturally, for example, code highlighting. Should always pick the right tool for the right task.

[pvorb]

Okay, these are valid points. I personally tend to choose against switching to LaTeX. But I assume we agree that you shouldn't start with LaTeX right away if not absolutely necessary.