Let's try to scope out the magnitude of the project, you will understand.
* Because the problems with LateX are mostly due to the limitations of TeX syntax. So you really have to design a new improved TeX-like language.
* While, you can borrow most of the syntax of Latex for the semantic language newLatex built on top of newTex, you will have to make a lot of improvements there too. In principle, you don't have to, but in practice whoever does it, will.
* Then you have to write a compiler that works on multiple platforms.
* Compiler outputs PDF, a terrible format to work with anyway.
* Compiler for html will be demanded too, or the project will fail. So have to write that too.
* What about all the latex packages? There are hundreds of packages that will need to incorporated somehow. Or the project will fail.
* Who is going to do all of this? Language design requires a really small team to make an excellent product. But the remaining project is so large, so you need a larger team for that. So now you need a larger team that will just accept what the Language design committee creates.
* Once, you have created something, you have to convince scientists, some who have been using Latex for decades to switch. But scientists will only switch if journals will switch. And journals don't don't want to maintain templates in another language.
In short, there are a whole host of technical and political problems that nobody really wants to tackle. The project is simply not prestigious enough.
But if Ycombinator wants to help science, if they can fund a team to do this, this will probably contribute more to the advancement of science than almost anything else with a few million dollars.
* Because the problems with LateX are mostly due to the limitations of TeX syntax. So you really have to design a new improved TeX-like language.
* While, you can borrow most of the syntax of Latex for the semantic language newLatex built on top of newTex, you will have to make a lot of improvements there too. In principle, you don't have to, but in practice whoever does it, will.
* Then you have to write a compiler that works on multiple platforms.
* Compiler outputs PDF, a terrible format to work with anyway.
* Compiler for html will be demanded too, or the project will fail. So have to write that too.
* What about all the latex packages? There are hundreds of packages that will need to incorporated somehow. Or the project will fail.
* Who is going to do all of this? Language design requires a really small team to make an excellent product. But the remaining project is so large, so you need a larger team for that. So now you need a larger team that will just accept what the Language design committee creates.
* Once, you have created something, you have to convince scientists, some who have been using Latex for decades to switch. But scientists will only switch if journals will switch. And journals don't don't want to maintain templates in another language.
In short, there are a whole host of technical and political problems that nobody really wants to tackle. The project is simply not prestigious enough.
But if Ycombinator wants to help science, if they can fund a team to do this, this will probably contribute more to the advancement of science than almost anything else with a few million dollars.