LaTeX-like cross-referencing in epub? - latex

Are there any markup languages or compilers that will allow me to use LaTeX like cross-referencing commands (label and ref) and then create an epub document?
Everything I've tried so far (pandoc including) has some shortcomings.

Pandoc v1.9 has just been released and has many improvements, including adding internal and external links to the EPUB writer. Also note that pandoc supports DocBook output, which community has its own independent paths to EPUB via XSLT.
Also check out the "Extras" page in the Pandoc wiki, I've been excited lately by Aditya's "filter" script, not sure if that would be helpful for your use case though.

Related

plantUML in latex?

Is it possible to use plantUML inside a latex document?
One workaround would be to convert plantUML into tikzpicture and integrate it in the latex document. That seems a bit too much effort to me, especially with updates.
I am using overleaf and TeXiFy, the document generation should work on both latex editors.
If a direct integration is possible, I would like to see an example.
thanks

F# literate programming: how to embed plots?

I've been using F# for a few months now and have started looking into ways to create documents and presentations that include static plots/charts with F#, much like I was able to do in the programming language R with knitr and Beamer slides. For literate programming, I've found that FSharp.Formatting allows me to export to HTML and that FSharp.Markdown.Pdf will allow me to export to .pdf, but in neither instance is there a clear way to embed plots generated in F#.
For creating plots, I'm familiar with FnuPlot (which allows me to write a static plot directly to a .png), Plotly, and have started looking into XPlot, but again, there isn't a clear way to include charts from these packages into document produced out of F#.
This may be more of a "plotting in F#" question than literate programming, but is there a simple means of producing a presentation or document with static charts, text/tables, and a custom CSS in F#?
Thanks for your help!
The FsLab journal template lets you turn scripts with Markdown comments and F# code snippets into a nice HTML (and with some limitations into a PDF too). Here is a sample output that it can produce.
To get started you can:
Download "FsLab Journal Template" from the FsLab downloads page
Get a Visual Studio Template if you are using VS
Look at Literate F# scripts and Embedding output documentation.
It supports embedding of XPlot and F# Charting charts out of the box. If you're interested in adding FnuPlot support, then it certainly be done - feel free to open an issue on GitHub for this.

Making multiple PDFs from 1 TEX file in LaTeX?

I'd like to create multiple documents (output as PDFs after running pdflatex) whose source is from one file.
Example:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This text will appear in the first PDF.
\end{document}
\begin{document}
This text will appear in the second PDF.
\end{document}
This would be particularly useful because:
I could keep everything in 1 file, with a single, consistent preamble.
I could use ifthen or other loops to automatically generate various alternative forms of a document.
AFAIK this is not possible without some preprocessing of your file, i.e. using a scripting language to produce two separate documents then compiling them separately. Even then I don't think it's a good idea.
The first reason you think this would be useful is handled by putting your preamble in a separate document that is included in as many documents as you want using \include. The second aspect can be handled by using Makefiles and putting the conditional branching to build particular versions of a document in there.
I wrote a really simple preprocessor for LaTeX that embeds Ruby code directly into .tex files for this purpose and use the ERB template engine. Here's the source code on Google Code, if you want to take a look. There's not much to it, though I regularly use it from a Ant/latexmk-based build script and it has proved very useful for generating multiple version of my résumé. It works equally well on Linux/Mac OS X/Windows, assuming you have a working LaTex and Ruby installation.

How to integrate Sphinx-generated Latex code in existing Latex documents?

I've used Sphinx to document a Python library. So far this works great, I get nice HTML and LaTeX output. Concerning Latex, Sphinx generates a complete standalone document with lots of special packages and configurations.
But, I would like to integrate the generated Latex files within an already existing Latex project (more precise: in the appendix of a book). In particular I want the Sphinx-generated documentation pages to have the header, footer and section heading styles of the parent document. I guess I could somehow transfer the relevant parts by manually removing unneeded stuff and adjusting various options in the tex files generated by Sphinx. However, probably this is going to be a very tedious fiddling taking too much of my time (thinking of conflicting packages and options I have to detect and fix).
Does Sphinx' Latex-Builder support such a use case? If not, is there a more general approach how to merge independent Latex-documents?
Thanks for any hints!
It seems there is no generally valid answer to this question. I've asked this question on the sphinx mailing list and received an answer which basically says one has to manually extract and partly convert the relevant parts of the latex code generated by sphinx - a less expensive solution does not yet exist.

Cross-platform editing for LaTeX documents?

What solutions are there for working on a LaTeX document on both Windows and Linux?
It's a large document, and I will be working daily on both platforms so compatibility is essential if it's two different pieces of software.
Bonus points for a solution that includes easy previewing.
Writing text is not very different from writing software. Similar management techniques apply when scaling up.
Modularity: Split the document to smaller pieces e.g. a separate .tex file for each chapter. I also like to keep the preamble and other LaTeX set-up separate from the body text. My chapter files themselves just have the body text with some markup but do not define any new commands.
Source control: Keep all the source files in a version control tool such as subversion. Transfer files between systems using the tool.
Builds: Have a Makefile or similar to control the build process: it should be consistent and repeatable. Build regularly and fix build problems as soon as possible. If you want easy previews, you can set up a Makefile rule to launch e.g. a PDF viewer after the target PDF has been compiled.
Editing: Use whatever you're compatible with. It does not matter that much, though some good advice has been given by other answerers.
Communication: If there's more than one person working on the same stuff, no tool is a substitute for interpersonal communication.
TeXworks is a new cross-platform TeX editor with a built-in PDF preview that has source-output synchronisation. Click in the source to go to the matching part in the output, and vice versa. It's not the most feature-rich editor, by design, but the simplicity/power trade-off is just right, in my opinion.
I've used Emacs and its AucTeX mode, which is great for editing, as it has a set of very consistent shortcuts to insert many common commands and environments. There are also preview modes that display maths graphically in the Emacs window but I haven't used them.
As with VIM, there's a learning curve of course.
Unlike Legoolas, I'd advise for direct-to-PDF compilation using pdfTeX, but maybe Windows/Linux doesn't have a PDF viewer that automatically reloads the file? I'd be surprised if so (I use Skim on Mac). Check if your viewer supports synctex, as it's quite handy to navigate from PDF to source and back, without the cons of pdfsync.
To compile, my tool of choice is latexmk which is included in TeXlive. It completely automates the build, and can watch the .tex source to rebuild automatically.
Try LyX – The Document Processor, a "What You See Is What You Mean" editor for LaTeX.
Eclipse with its TeXlipse plugin should solve the IDE problem. More important are, however, issues like using only fonts that are available or installable on both platforms.
For previewing I am using Emacs with its Preview Latex feature in the AucTeX package.
For windows, you can use the TeXnicCenter, that is one of the best IDE for windows.
For Linux, you can use simply use Kile (it is possible to use kile with KDE on CygWin, but it is not the perfect solution).
There is no problem to switch from one IDE to another one (since you just save the .tex file and nothing else)
It also exists some cross-platform IDE, but I do not know them:
TeXmaker
TeXmakerX: a fork from TeXmaker
Since you'll probably not want to change text editor from whatever you usually use just for editing LaTeX docs (unless you use an editor which can't do syntax highlighting for LaTeX as well as whatever else you code/write in it), I'd recommend the simple following set of tools:
Whatever text editor you are used to, as long as it can highlight LaTeX markup. If it can't, then find a better editor for using with everything you do!.
Install MikTeX or TeXLive and just use the DVI viewer which comes with them by double-clicking on your DVI file. This will automatically update whenever the dvi file is changed by your editing of the latex file and re-creating the output.
I use Emacs as my text editor of choice, on both Linux and Windows. Setting up some scripts or makefiles to build the latex document when I hit a key is pretty easy, and fits in with everything else I use Emacs for nicely.
Other cross-platform options (many of which have already been mentioned by others in this thread):
LyX
TeXlispse for Eclipse
I've used VIM, combined with the VIM-LaTeX plugin, with great success. It does have a bit of a learning curve though.
Gummi is the best LaTeX editor. It is a free, open source, program written in python, featuring a live preview pane.
http://gummi.midnightcoding.org/
e4 http://gummi.midnightcoding.org/wp-content/uploads/20091012-1large(1).png
Get your work in some kind of version control system, then when you move from computer to computer you just update from a central server and its just like you left it.
It doesn't matter about the IDE, as you are saving just the .tex file, as noted above. If you want to use the same editor though, for the sake of coherency, use texmaker.
I use version control, and just use MikTex/WinEDT on Windows and TexShop on the mac.
IF your document doesn't compile on both, you're probably forgetting to keep the two directories synchronized or use funky commands, I like the sanity checks of knowing that it "compiles" cleanly on two platforms.
I use some text editor, and then I have a cron job that does a compile hourly from my source control.
Tex files are just text. I would recommend using a version control system (you should be using that anyway) to keep the source in sync. You can then use any (or different) editors on each system, e.g. Kile for linux and winEdt for windows. Both com with nice viewrs.
For a simple solution for the source control that just works with minimum knowledge and hassle, consider dropbox.
Revisiting my own question after quite a few years, I thought I'd add
https://www.writelatex.com/
not strictly what I had in mind, but have used it for collaborative writing
An excellent multiplatform LaTeX IDE is Texmaker.
For Debian or Ubuntu, I made a tutorial easy to follow: Install LaTeX on Ubuntu or Debian. This tutorial explains how to install LaTeX on Debian or Ubuntu and how to create your first PDF.

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