lualatex

TEX program = lualatex to the top of your document allows you to switch LaTeX engine.

However, note that there are the more powerful XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX, which can be a suitable choice for advanced users.

This is a LuaLaTeX-based layout engine that computes page geometry in Lua and emits flowfram frames for deterministic, magazine-style layouts.

By the way, lualatex, from the LuaTeX project, behaves the same, although somewhat slower and infinitely scriptable in Lua.

For anyone new coming to latex instead of messing with unicode bandaids and worrying about fonts they can just use xelatex/lualatex and fontspec.

I've found LuaLaTeX to be quite stable already and used it to compile my PhD thesis.

I would say that Typst, if it’s a replacement for anything, is a replacement for LuaLaTeX, because of its programmability.

Compilation takes a bit longer though, but works fine, unlike with Overleaf where using the lualatex engine does not work in the free version.

Today, the recommended engine is LuaLaTeX, and it defaults to OpenType fonts.

Fonts are still a mess in pdfTeX though, so I'll definitely second your fontspec+LuaLaTeX recommendation.

Recent distributions of LaTeX come with binaries luatex and lualatex.

ConTeXt is a new syntax/concept based on LuaLaTeX (that doesn’t want to be compatible with LaTeX and its errors) --- That shell is unfortunately MS PowerShell.

XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX do not introduce any "complications" Well, there are still some packages that work flawlessly with pdfLaTeX, but not completely with LuaLaTeX or XeLaTeX --- microtype is the canonical example.

My personal recommendation would be to just always use "lualatex", or "pdflatex" if you have older documents that won't work with LuaLaTeX for some reason.

XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX do not introduce any "complications" and are not only for "advanced users".