LaTeX-X is a suite
of bash scripts to compile a single LaTeX2e file in one command.
It launches as many times as necessary the compiler as
well as bibtex and makeindex when it is necessary. The output format is either PostScript (with "latex" and
"dvips") or PDF (with "pdflatex" (including when the package "pst-pdf"
is loaded, or "latex" and "ps2pdf" or "xelatex").
The compilation is
performed in a temporary directory that is specific to the current
compilation, and when LaTeX-X is launched from a terminal is cleared
when exiting the program. We can therefore
compile several files at the same time, as well as files for which we
have no write rights.
Two compilation modes
are proposed. Either
a simple visualization or a direct export in the final format chooses
without visualization. The
name under which the final file is saved, as well as the directory
where you want to put it, can be chosen by the user (in the viewing
mode, the recording is also proposed once the display closed). Before
the recording, the user can, if he wishes, modify a file of the
temporary directory of compilation, and restart a simple compilation
then (for example if one wants to obtain a particular formatting of an
index). In
latex compilation, you can record either the dvi, the PostScript, or
both. On
the other hand, in visualization mode, it is not planned to be able to
visualize the DVI, the main reason being that it is much better to use
Type 1 fonts (especially for the PDF) and that the visualization of
some of
these fonts by xdvi is usually not of very good quality.
All compilation is done in non-stop mode. This implies that if the compilation is complete (ie without
"emergency stop" or "nopage of output"), it is possible that there are
errors that the compiler corrected itself, with more or less of
happiness. In this case, at the end of the
compilation, the user is warned that there have been errors and the
program asks him to consult the log file produced by the compilation.
The user then chooses either to correct the error or to
view the result as it is. The same phenomenon occurs with
the warning. When the compilation fails
("emergency stop"), the log is automatically displayed. Note that the temporary build directory is emptied (on the
command line) only when all windows are closed.
The compilation commands ("latex", "dvips", "pdflatex",
"xelatex") are therefore launched with special options and their
modification is not accessible to the user (unless you modify the
scripts).
The standard use of LaTeX-X is on the command line in a
terminal. The description of this command line
is obtained by typing "latex-x --help" into a terminal. Naturally, the program can also be used via a file manager.
LaTeX-X can also be used through the menus of
a LaTeX editor (like Emacs,
Nedit,
Kile,
Texmaker,
TeXstudio,
LaTeXila
(Gnome LaTeX) and even
LyX,
see
ici for a detailed description of this
use). In this case, the view mode is at the same
time an "update" mode, which means that if the user has already made a
compilation of the file he edits, restarting LaTeX-X on the file
launches the minimum compilation required to
update the final result, the viewer is then open only if it has been
closed, and if not, the update of the visualization is done in the
viewer (with Acroread, version 5 , this requires
the installation of a plugin that is not present in the standard
distribution). Note that the "update" mode takes
into account all the modifications made, not only on the LaTeX2e file
itself, but also on the files on which the compilation depends (ie the
used bibtex files as well as all the file inputs *.tex for which the user has the right to write).
LaTeX-X is configurable to some extent. In the preferences window (which can be opened directly with
the command "latex-x --config") we can make the following changes:
- Choice
of the LaTeX file editor (default: emacs);
- Choice of the PostScript viewer (default: gv);
- Choosing
the PDF Viewer (default: acroread -tempFile);
- Choice
of the text file editor (default emacs);
- Choosing
the html file viewer (default: firefox);
- Choice
of the visualization of the messages of compilation: one can choose
either to see as and as the messages of the compilation (it is
different from the latex-log file) or not to see them;
- Choice
of the visualization of the messages of dvips: same choice as for the
compilation.