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The team I work for manages a large collection of technical documentation which is written in LaTeX.
Currently all the documentation we have is manually built by the editors and then checked into a version control system. Sometimes people forget to compile their documents so we have a situation where the PDF and .tex files are often out of step. Unfortunately when this happens our users find themselves reading old versions of our document.
I've managed to hack a simple script to build PDFs using Make - it's rather clumsy.
I was wondering if there was a better way to do it? Most people in our department use Eclipse + Pydev for a Python project which means we are all very familiar with this IDE. I know that Ant plays nicely with Eclipse, so might we be able to use this tool for our doc building?
So what's the best way of doing this? I hope I will not have to learn everything there is to know about a new build-system in order to automate the building of some quite simple docs.
There is an external Ant task for LaTeX PDF generation, though the site is in German.
To use it, download the jar to a location on your machine, then define a taskdef as follows:
<taskdef name="latex" classname="de.dokutransdata.antlatex.LaTeX"
classpath="/path/to/ant/lib/ant_latex.jar"/>
Then to use it, define a target like this:
<target name="doLaTeX">
<latex
latexfile="${ltx2.file}"
verbose="on"
clean="on"
pdftex="off"
workingDir="${basedir}"
/>
</target>
Where ltx2.file is the file to process.
This is a link to the howto page listing the parameters. If you need any more options, my German is just about passable enough to explain, maybe.
There is also a maven plugin for LaTeX, but I can't find any documentation.
Haven't tried it, but I remember seeing a blog post about it.
If you know python, this blog post might be interesting
EDIT: Also, I would assume that you're using some kind of version control system, and I can't say for sure, but I use git to manage all my latex docs, and it might be possible to use some kind of post-commit hook to execute a script to rebuild the document. This would depend on how your repository is structured... just thinking out loud, so to speak.
I went into great detail on a large number of build systems for latex in this question, but its slightly different in your case. I think you want rubber or latexmk. The latex-makefile seems a good idea, but only supports building via postscript, which might not be your build process.
In general, its a good idea to keep generated files outside of version control for just this reason. A good exception is when specialist build tools are not widely available, and your situation sounds similar. You might do better with a commit-hook to build automatically upon commit.
I guess I should also point out that committing something without first building it and checking it is a deadly sin, so a better solution might be to stamp that out.
Maven is a better alternative as build system compared to Ant. So I would recommend a maven-plugin to generate PDF from LaTeX sources. Have a look at mathan-latex-maven-plugin
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.
I was originally going to frame this question around TextMate, which is by all accounts an amazing editor, but only available on OSX. I was curious how those who have spent time learning to use TextMate efficiently deal with the situation where they have to edit on a non-OSX platform. But it's really a more general question. How do people deal with situations where you can't use your preferred text editor?
I use gvim and vim primarily, and I know that these editors have a rather esoteric set of keybindings, so when I'm editing in another editor I'll often mistakenly type things I didn't want to type while trying to navigate. This can be very inefficient.
So how do people deal with these kinds of situations? Just swallow the inefficiency? Try to avoid the situation or go to great lengths to get the file that needs editing into your preferred editor? Do you have one or two editors you're proficient with that you can switch between without problems? Do you change the keybindings of other editors to more closely match your preferred editor?
I work as a support technician, which means I'm frequently working on customer systems remotely. The unfortunate side effect is that I rarely have any choice over what editor I get to use in those situations. Generally speaking there's not a whole lot you can do about it unless the situation is one where it's feasible for you to install a new editor or bring a USB thumb drive or something similar with your editor pre-installed on it. In such a situation, by all means, if you plan to be working for an extended time period, take advantage of the opportunity. You'll work faster and more efficiently and it will be less frustrating.
In an environment (e.g. webex/RDC) where you cannot install software or use temporary media, you have two choices: live with whatever editor they have, or copy files back and forth from your system. Typically if I'm doing very minor editing I just suck it up and use whatever editor is available. If I know I'm going to be doing an extensive amount of editing, I find a way to transfer the file I'm working on back and forth. This still stinks, forcing you to interrupt your editing flow with file transfers, but I find my sanity makes it worth not struggling with something like notepad to do real editing or programming.
The advantage of using either vim or emacs as an editor is precisely that it's available on virtually any decently configured Unix platform (and this includes more esoteric systems as well, e.g. Darwin/OS X). Combined with the fact that you can store your configuration online (e.g. Dotfiles) this makes for a very strong argument, because the problem you described simply doesn't exist.
Since I work primarily in a windows environment, I keep Notepad++ installed on a flash drive. That way I can just pop the usb drive into a machine and have a quality editor, without having to install anything.
On machines I'm using for longer periods, I use SciTE. I also use Dvorak keyboard. When guesting on machines, everything is different anyway as the keys are in illogical places. I just edit with what's there, or pass the file to source control and edit on my machine.
I resort to using notepad on win machines at client sites. Especially since I know that installing anything is not an option and I know that notepad will always be there.
For me the only time this happens is when I'm using someone else's system since I typically install a text editor that I am reasonably familiar with on each system that I own/use regularly. In that case, if I'm struggling too much, I move over and let the other person take the wheel (keyboard). FWIW, I use TextMate (sometimes vim) on OSX, TextPad (sometimes Notepad or even Edit on servers not under my direct control) on Windows, and vim on Linux.
I got comfortable with a couple different editors - vi, eclipse, and PFE. If I'm using some other editor short-term, I just deal with it. If it's longer term, Google is my friend, and I go download one I like.
On windows i convince everybody to install notepad++
On mac TextMate rules
On linux vim
I use vi under linux and Ultraedit under Windows.
Vi is a must if you are doing some linux administration or if
you are working directly in a shell.
A mouse oriented editor is useful if you are working under a
windowing system.
Anyway, I think you need to know the basics of both.
I work regularly on Linux and Windows, and occasionally on OS X. Having to switch editors between them is a pain, so the obvious solution would be using some cross-platform editor. Right now I'm experimenting with Komodo Edit, which looks pretty promising.
If there's no decent editor in the machine, it doesn't take long to download and install one.
If you are programming under windows you might want to take a look at e text editor its basically TextMate for windows and supports the bundles and everything.
I know of etexteditor and vim/emacs.
Are there any other windows editors which have textmate-like snippets support (eg. you write trigger word, press tab, it changes to something, you press tab again, and it changes to first stop, you can then enter something there and it will change on several other places according to snippet defined) ?
I know it's a little weird explanation, but you probably know what I mean.
You can use the snipMate plugin for vim - I use it and it works great
InType could "someday" become what you're looking for, at least the alphas are promising. Sadly, a release version of InType is still far from being ready (see blog and forums).
Update: Currently, I'm using Sublime Text, another great editor: fully Python-scriptable and snippets support.
Redcar, written in Ruby, was just released, but it's not polished by any means.
Apart from that, I don't know of any.
jEdit will do something similar if you use the SuperAbbrevs plugin.
Visual Studio will do this, but it's nowhere near as nice as textmate / e.
I don't use windows but whilst searching for a alternative for linux I came across e-texteditor.
You can look into using an application independent of your IDE, to expand snippets.
I have a lorem ipsum snippet; one that contains my URL, my email, and so on, but you could also make snippets that contain code.
Applications: Textexpander for Mac, Typinator for Mac, Texter for Windows (no experience with the last one, so don't know if it's any good)
Komodo Edit and Komodo IDE both support this, although TextMate is arguably a bit more refined and polished in this area. Komodo Edit is free, however, and compares very favorably against the likes of InType and E for Windows.
http://www.openkomodo.com/
Visual Studio 2015 since Update 2 RC
Visual Studio now supports consuming TextMate snippets with
IntelliSense completion by placing tmSnippet files into a snippet
folder.
https://t.co/kmG52wkOXe
Visual Studio Code
Another addition to the yo code generator is the option to add
TextMate Snippets (.tmSnippets) to VS Code
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/user_ed/archive/2015/12/12/visual-studio-code-new-feature-yo-code-generator-textmate-snippets.aspx
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I'm not sure if many people know about this text-editor?
jEdit was kinda big in 2004, but now, Notepad++ seems to have taken the lead(on Windows)
Many of the plugins haven't been updated since 2003 and the overal layout and usage is confusing...
I'm sure jEdit has many nifty features, but I'll be damned if I can find out where to find them and how to use them. Reading that manual is a fulltime job on it's own.
I've been using jEdit for a few years now, mainly on windows, but also on Ubuntu.
I use it for: SQL, awk, batch files, html, xml, javascript...
Just about everything except .NET stuff (for which I use Visual Studio).
I love it.
summary
I use jEdit because it has the right balance for me of ease of setting up vs. features and customisability. For me, no other editor strikes quite as good a balance.
cons
It can be a bit hard to make it do the things you want.
pros
I love the plugins
Being able to define my own syntax highlighting etc. is just what I want from a text editor.
The manual is very good and quite readable. I strongly suggest reading it through to get an idea of what jEdit can do for you. (In fact, I suggest this for any software you use)
It's cross-platform. I used it just on windows for a long time, but now I also use Ubuntu, and it works there: I can even copy the configuration files over from my windows machine, and everything works. Nice.
other editors
In the past I did take a look at Notepad++, but that was a while ago, and it didn't have a nice way to define your own syntax highlighting, which is important for me. I also paid for Textmate and UltraEdit at different times (both very good), but in the end, jEdit comes out on top for me.
I also used Eclipse for a year or so. It's fantastic, and it'll do anything you want, but you have to be really into Eclipse to get the most out of it.
I've occasionally wondered about the same thing (what happened to jEdit - though I'm not sure if that was your main question).
Apparently, the main developer, Slava Pestov, left the project in 2006 (to focus on Factor, and his studies), and the jEdit development has never really picked up again after that. Which is a shame. :/ (I haven't actually followed closely, but I guess it's telling that there has not been a major release of jEdit in the last 4 and half years.)
Now, while googling around, I found some info written by Slava himself. It seems at that time he not only gave up jEdit, but developing in Java altogether, after becoming "increasingly frustrated" with the language.
I've been using jEdit since 2003ish. I use it on my Ubuntu 8.04 box at home, however it does have a few bugs: sometimes when you click on a button which opens a dialog, such as "Open File", the dialog will be completely blank.
This could be a Java thing, but it seems a strange issue.
Other than that, I'm quite happy with jEdit - it's the best general editor I've found (so far) for Linux (ducks as hordes of Vi and Emacs users light up their flame cannons)
I like the XML Editor plugin: auto-completion when you close XML (including HTML) tags, plus if you specify a DOCTYPE it gives you auto completion.
There is also a handy plugin for visually viewing diffs between two files.
jEdit is by far, my prefered editor since 2010. It has a unique set of features that I didn't found in any other:
Multi OS: Win, Linux, Mac.
Portable: Just copy a folder and it is ready to use. All settings are kept in .XML and .properties files inside jEdit subfolder. This is crucial if you don't have admin rights on your enterprise workstation.
Search-Replace: The most enhanced I've seen in a text editor: Full Regex specification with Bean Shell scripting capabilities for back references. For instance: Let's say you want to apply an increment on every number found in your text (replace 1 by 2, 10 by 11 and so on). Just search for regex "(\d+)" and replace by a Java expression "Integer.parseInt(_1) + 1". It's just a simple example, but enough to show how powerful it is.
Database: Just select your SQL statement, press a button and get the resultset from MySQL, MsSql, Oracle, Teradata and any other Jdbc compatible RDBMS. Export results to csv. Works like a multi-database command line tool. Browse and navigate on your database schema. (SQL plugin).
Customization: Here is where jEdit shines. There are tons of features. The highlight is the ability to use any java API to expand it! Access them from your Beanshell scripting macros. Example: I needed a function that decode selected text from/to mime64. No problem! I Just downloaded a library from commons.apache.org and accessed it from a jEdit macro. It's just unbeliveable how expandable jEdit can be with this feature.
Highlight: Select a word or phrase and it is highlighted right away in the entire text. The mini-map of ocurrences is shown in the scrollbar. It allows quickly find, for example, a respective css style in separated file just using the mouse. No need for Ctrl+F or type anything. It works even on ordinary txt files. (Highlight Plugin)
Plugins: FTP, XML, Text Diff, Themes, Text Tabs, Highlighter, character map, Mail, Whitespaces, Abbrevs, Minimap...there are hundreds of them.
There are dozens of other nice features that I won't describe here in order to keep this answer not too long. The complete article can be found here and the mime64 example here.
At first glance, jEdit is just another text editor. The full capabilities come into light when you start playing with it's endless customization/expansion power. My initial reluctance of accepting a java-written text editor disappeared when I realize that only a java text-editor could be so extensible. Its initial drawback turned into it's main advantage.
I have been using jEdit for the last five years. And I agree with Mr. Mahan's comment above, jEdit has reached the "just works stage" and does not really need anymore development.
I mainly use it for PHP web development and have tried everything from commercial IDEs (DreamWeaver) to php designer, NetBeans, Eclipse, Apanta and Notepad++. And nothing comes close for customization possibilities. If the plugin does not exist, chances you can whip something together with a BeanShell Macro (assuming you want to dig into Java).
On Windows I use Notepad++ as well, but mainly as a Notepad replacement (I even renamed the notepad.exe)
At the end of the day it comes down to taste. What is important to you and what will make you more productive. A distracting GUI and fluffy features can take you away from what you should be focusing on.
And to boot I have converted a few developers to jEdit along the way.
At the risk of performing necromancy:
Because of the way it's been released the last decade or so, major Linux distributions usually lag quite far behind the latest stable version. The good news is that there are repositories to install and upgrade it automatically on Ubuntu and more.
For a couple years I shared configuration files between Windows, FreeBSD and Linux without problems. That's more than I can say about any other application I've ever used.
The only issue I've heard about is that it used to be slow back in the dawn of time. Now it's really fast.
Encodings and line endings are handled more seamlessly than any other editor except IntelliJ IDEA.
Vertical editing. Just hold down Ctrl and drag to create a rectangular (or even a zero-width vertical) selection.
Better search and replace than any other editor ever except IntelliJ IDEA. I just started writing a list, but it has to be seen to be believed. Just Ctrl-f and see for yourself.
I had to use during my vocational education for XML and XSLT. It had a lot of bugs and didn't work always. I couldn't get to like it, but if I had to test some XSLT I'd give it another shot. I found Notepad++ and I am more than happy with it for what I need.
To your question: Did you take a look at jEdit's plugin list? There are some plugins released 2008 and the latest version was released on 8th August 2008.
Myeah, I just installed the 4.3pre15(latest) and it does look a bit better.
Super feature is the automatic XML DTD creation you can get from one of the plugins.
Now THAT is awsome, especially for big files
After many years, jEdit remains my favorite free validating XML editor. I love the seamless combination of XML validation with plain-text editing features such as regex search-and-replace across multiple files.
I have used jEdit for a number of years, both on PC and Mac (a bit funky on the Mac).
Currently I use it primarily as a folding editor for a number of on-going documentation notes. I have use the folding at the text indent levels - an easy way to collapse and expand file sections, without any work to set up each section.
The feature I really like are the command shortcut alternatives you can set up, the tool bar icon control, and the the abbreviation expansions. The Plugins I especially favor are the BufferTabs to display rows of file/buffer names, and the Whitespace and TextTools.
I recently loaded the GroovyScriptEngine, in part because of the syntax coloring and control for groovy. I set up 2 seperate jEdit versions, in part to maintain seperate history lists, as I update a few dozen files repeatedly.
I loved Notepad++ on windows, but when I made the switch to Mac I was left behind. Since then I have been in tune with utilities that work across multiple platforms so that is why I switched to JEdit over 2 years ago and I have been loving it ever since. It works flawlessly on my Mac, never crashes, is fast, and has many many add-ons. It is based on Java so it works on many different platforms. I think Jedit is equal to or better than Notepad++
My favorite plug-in is the FTP module. I can open, edit and save files on my FTP server just as easily as if they were local.