[jimws]

> But there is a point where using a simple and elegant tool stops being simple and elegant - it can only be tortured so far outside its intended use-case before it stops being useful.

An alternative tool I've begun to like is TeXMe: https://github.com/susam/texme. It is like Markdeep but minimal--does not support any fancy features. Just plain Markdown and Latex. Very useful for note taking in a file that can publish itself. I don't think I can draw fancy diagrams while taking notes live so I don't need diagrams. So this simple tool serves me well.

[JoshTriplett]

TeX doesn't preclude diagrams. I use TikZ extensively, and I've found it much easier than any graphical diagram tool I've ever used. (As with most of TeX, it has a learning curve, but then a much easier steady-state after that learning curve.)