LaTeX-X


     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: