[TxMt] Newbie Questions Concerning LaTeX bundle, PDFView etc.

[Holger Frauenrath]

Hello everybody,

I have a number of relatively basic questions concerning the LaTeX  
bundle, the "bundle mechanism" in general, as well as Textmate's  
interaction with PDFView. I am a newbie to Textmate in the sense that  
I bought a license about 8 months ago but I have not regularly/ 
seriously used it until now, and I am sure that I have not fully  
understood some of the basics yet. So, please, excuse me if some of  
the questions are "stupid" or have been answered on this list or in  
Textmate's documentation. It would be helpful to just point me to the  
relevant parts of the documentation in this case.

I should say, though, that I followed the discussions on this list in  
the last 8 months, and I have also used Textmate on and off, I  
tinkered around in order to fit it to my needs, tried (and partially  
succeeded) to wrap my mind around the scope selector mechanism etc.

I must say that I am really excited about Textmate's potential, in  
particular, its flexibility in regard of syntax coloring. If I  
interpret the recent emails to the TeX on MacOS X mailing list  
correctly, there is quite a need and a desire for a TeX frontend that  
has some decent capabilities as a text editor but keeps TeXShop's  
simplicity. This is why I hope that I am not alone with the following  
questions (because I feel that this email will be relatively long)!  
There seems to be a place for Textmate among the folks who use TeX on  
MacOS X. The point is, I *want* to love Textmate, but some of the  
following issues/questions keep me from using it on a regular basis.

So, here we go.

1. What is (strategically) the best way to include my own additions,  
e.g., to the syntax coloring? The first thing I tried was to change  
the original LaTeX language file itself, but I soon understood that  
was not a good idea. The second thing I tried was create my own LaTeX  
addition file (which would claimall .tex files and at the end include  
the original LaTeX language file) but that also seemed to break  
certain things. In relation to this first question, I think I need to  
understand the following related questions:
2. Do I understand correctly that the "LaTeX bundle" is somehow  
officially maintained in the sense that certain improvements and  
additions are included in the official release from time to time?
3. Is there a "version system" for the bundles? I mean, is there a  
way to tell that I have the latest version of the bundle (or which  
one I have installed)?
4. Is a new version of a bundle automatically installed with the  
Textmate updates?
5. What happens to my own additions when a bundle is upgraded? As far  
as I understand, my additions are stored as "differences" to the  
original file. But what exactly happens, for example, when I added/ 
changed a behavior that is later added/modified/deleted in an updated  
bundle?

Furthermore, I have some questions concerning the typesetting  
process. Let me start with two observations. The first time I  
installed Textmate, the TeX console window would pop up when I hit  
"Typeset", and the results would appear in relatively large chunks as  
HTML output which seemed rather "slow" compared to TeXShop. The  
window stayed on the screen when the typesetting was finished. The  
second time I installed Textmate a couple of months later, (on my  
MacBook Pro, only in case this matters), the large console window  
would pop up in the middle of the screen briefly during typesetting,  
and immediately disappear again when typesetting was finished (which  
is relatively fast on a Macbook Pro!), not leaving me any chance to  
at least adjust its size and position.

6. Can anybody give me a clue why there is this difference in  
behaviors? Has the bundle changed in this respect? Does it matter  
which type of processor it is run on?
7. Can one bring up the TeX console window without typesetting (e.g.  
in order to change its size/position)?
8. Is there a way to switch its behavior between one of the following  
options: Appear upon typesetting (i) always; (ii) upon error; (iii)  
never; (iv) and close when typesetting is finished?
9. In case there is no way to switch the behavior, would it not be a  
desirable feature? Would it be possible to include in the LaTeX  
bundle by default?
10. Are there any advantages to display the results formatted as  
HTML? Would it not be more appropriate (faster) to make it plain text?

And, finally, I have a few questions concerning the interaction with  
PDFView. Let me start with a few comments again. First of all, I find  
PDFView a really nice tool! Thanks to the developers! It just feels  
right. Simple, with a clean interface. The only "complaint" that I  
have (which is not really one) is that having two applications  
interact still feels more clunky than TeXShop's integrated  
solution ... I wonder whether there is any chance to see a PDF  
Previewer with some basic LaTeX specific functionality (pdfsync,  
click-to-magnify etc.) included in Textmate?
In any case ...

11. How am I supposed to view the current selection/cursor position  
in Textmate in PDFView? Sometimes (and really not always), selecting  
a word and hitting Ctrl-Opt-Cmd-O seems to work. Is there a better  
way? For example, one without previously selecting something, or a  
simple Cmd-click?
12. Why does it sometimes fail to take me to the correct paragraph  
(showing the page PDFView had previously shown)? Is this a  
shortcoming of pdfsync?


Again, excuse me for this laundry list of questions.

Thank you in advance for your answers, a big Thank You to the  
Textmate/Bundle/PDFView developers for providing such great tools,  
and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

Holger

__
ETH Zürich
Department of Materials
Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, HCI H515
8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Phone: (+41) 1 633 6474
Fax:   (+41) 1 633 1390
Email: frauenrath at mat.ethz.ch
Web:   http://www.polychem.mat.ethz.ch/frauenrath/


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