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

[Holger Frauenrath]

Hi Haris and everybody else,

first of all thanks for your great work, and for your long answer. I  
was able to figure out some things, and I stumbled over new problems  
(for me). Before I start with some of my issues, let me ask you  
whether this list is supposed to be the place for such "how-to"  
questions; whether there is a better place for these questions; or  
whether they should rather be discussed off-list.

And one more thing: I feel that I have to excuse myself again for  
some questions that may be found in the documentation (online or in  
Textmate). I spent most of my day today reading the documentation.  
The problem (for me) seems to be that it is currently sometimes hard  
to find the relevant piece of information one needs. So, please, just  
point me to the documentation if my question is answered there.

>> 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.
>
> Your second solution is as far as I can tell the best way to do it.  
> However, the LaTeX bundle mechanism is pretty complex, with 3  
> different syntax files including each other, to keep separate the  
> parts of the syntax that are latex only, tex in general, or math.  
> There are also separate grammars for the beamer and now memoir  
> classes, both including the latex grammar.
>
> So depending on what changes exactly you wanted to make, it might  
> be more complicated than simply including the grammar. I can answer  
> more specific questions if I know exactly what you want to do. (And  
> if it is for the greater good, I can just add them to the regular  
> LaTeX syntax).

So, for example, let's say I have a custom command for including  
scheme and figures, and I would like to have that command colored in  
a specific way; what would be the best and most forward-compatible  
way of doing it? If I understand things correctly, then, if I change  
the LaTeX language file directly, future updates to the bundle are  
going to be ignored (overwritten by my changed file). I guess, it  
would be better to put those personal additions into an extra file.  
But what is the correct/optimal way to call/include it in the LaTeX  
language file?

> The type of processor should not matter at all. The bundle however  
> changes very often. What the window does has to do with the value  
> of the TM_LATEX_ERRLVL variable. Look at the LaTeX bundle help for  
> details.

[snip]

> If the current TM_LATEX_ERRLVL settings are not sufficient, let us  
> know.

Thanks for the hint. I played around with the values. In my eyes it  
would be useful to have one additional option where the console  
window would not open at all *except* for when there is an error, in  
which case it should open and remain open. The reason is that I would  
like it to be closed after typesetting and, as a matter of fact, the  
typesetting of a short file on the MacBook only takes a fraction of a  
second anyways, so that the brief opening and closing of the console  
window is not useful (in this particular case).

> Yes, pdfsync only marks certain locations. Equations, sectioning  
> commands etc. Not sure about paragraphs. It definitely is not as  
> exact as TeXShop's, which uses PDFKit to do its magic.

Well, this just makes me hope for a nice, PDFKit based PDF viewer  
which nicely integrates with Textmate (or would be integrated into  
it) ... Textmates power and TexShop's syncing would be my dream LaTeX  
app. Oh, well ... back in the real world, I have two questions  
concerning the PDF Preview:

PDFView seems to crash on me fairly often when it updates an already  
open PDF file; some PDF files it will not open at all anymore. Is  
there anything I can do to help improve PDFView? I mean, not  
programming (I can't, sorry!). But, e.g., send console output or  
something like that.

Is there a way to make Textmate interact with TeXShop nicely? I have  
set TeXShop as my previewer, and checked "Configure for external  
viewer" but I seem to miss some settings to at least make it sync  
using pdfsync. Sorry if that is off-topic.

Then, I have a question concerning international keyboards. I  
currently have a Swiss keyboard (which drives me crazy anyways ...)  
which is I think the reason for many keyboard shortcuts not working.  
Is there a solution to this?

And, finally, I have a probably stupid question: I would like to  
change the menu structure (the commands) in the LaTeX bundle menu.  
How can I do that? To be more specific, I am sure (well ...) that I  
had done it before, and it used to work by simply dragging commands  
from the list in the bundle editor into the menu structure window of  
the LaTeX bundle. But it does not work (anymore). I can shuffle  
around commands, and I can move them to "excluded items", but I  
cannot add a new one.

Thanks again
Holger

__
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich)
Department of Materials
Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 10, HCI H515
CH-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/