Some TeX Developments

Jonathan Kew has released a couple of bug-fix versions on the ‘stable’ 0.2 branch of TeXworks, taking the current stable version to v0.2.2. The latest fix only affects Windows users, and is related to the ‘drag and drop’ inclusion of JPEG images. As usual, pre-compiled versions are available for Windows and Mac OS X: Linux users have to grab the source and compile their own.

Jonathan Kew has posted that he has switched the version number of TeXworks to v0.2, and has made a branch to keep things stable. There are new binaries for Windows and Mac users: Linux people still have to compile things themselves. The idea is that the branch will just get bug fixes, keeping the code stable enough for a wider range of users. Of course, those people who want the latest features will have to stick with the trunk. I’ve not seen any problems with the trunk so far, but I guess that some of the upcoming changes (for example, adding scripting) have some risk of problems.

There was an interesting e-mail to the TeXworks mailing list today. Laurence Field has made a build of TeXworks available as an “Application Bundle”, a pre-built drop-and-drag method for installing across Linux distributions. The idea is to make life as easy for Linux users as those on Macs (where the same drag-and-drop method is very common). Hopefully, this will help lower the entry barrier that bit further!

Jonathan Kew has posted new binaries for TeXworks, with the idea that these are a release candidate for version 0.1 (which will be in TeX Live 2009 on Windows). Over the past few builds, we’ve got an icon, installer and the ability to associate .tex files with TeXworks. So things already look pretty good to me. I’m not sure what exactly is planned for v0.2, but somewhere along the line the plan is to include scripting, so perhaps that’s the next big item to add. I’m already using TeXworks for my day-to-day work, so don’t be put off by the low version number.

Both MiKTeX and TeX Live have new versions in the offing. I’ve been testing out both MiKTeX 2.8 and TeX Live 2009, to keep up to date with what is happening. In the past, I’ve tended to stick with MiKTeX as it is designed for Windows, and so can make some platform-specific decisions and be more focussed. However, the TeX Live team have done a lot of work to make TeX Live usable across platforms, and there are advantages to that approach.

Looking through the feature lists, a lot of the new features are common to the two systems, for example:

• TeXworks installed as a distribution-maintained editor.
• XeTeX version 0.9995 (which includes the new primitives that the LaTeX3 team asked for).
• Some \write18 functions enabled without turning on full \write18 support: this is used to allow “safe” functions.

There are, of course, also differences. For example, only TeX Live includes LuaTeX at present. I also notice that MiKTeX 2.8 is adding the full path of files to the log, whereas in the past you got the relative path. I’m not so sure this is a good idea: it makes things rather wordy, and also the log will vary between systems: not so great. On the other hand, MiKTeX 2.8 does provide user-specific texmf directories. For multi-user systems, this is a real bonus: you can use the auto-install system without needing to be the Administrator.

As I said, I’ve tended to use MiKTeX to date as it’s been the best “fit” on Windows. The latest version of TeX Live makes this a pretty tight call, I think. If you are happy installing a full TeX system (which I do), then there is very little in it. MiKTeX still has the edge for small installations, as the auto-install system really pays off there.

Jonathan Kew has produced new binaries for TeXworks for both both Windows and MacOS X. The ZIP file now contains everything you need to download in one place, which makes installation that bit easier.

On a somewhat related matter, I see that MiKTeX 2.8 is going to include TeXworks, including setting up file associations (.tex and .sty). As TeX Live 2009 is also coming with TeXworks, getting hold of the programme should become very easy for end users. This can only be a good thing.

A quick note to say that Alain Delmoitte has released a new TeXworks binary build for Windows. This brings the binary up to date, and includes a “real” icon for the program (although this is going to change, I think).

The TeXworks program has been my main TeX editor for some time, despite having verion number “0.0.0”. There are recently been some work on getting a proper icon sorted out for the program, to replace the place holder. At the same time, Jonathan Kew has moved the version number on to 0.1. Great stuff: I’d already say it’s very usable. There is a Windows build for the latest version curtsey of Alain Delmotte: I suspect Mac and Unix users will have a little longer to wait if they want something pre-compiled.

There has been a very active thread recently on the TeXworks mailing list concerning how the aim of “lowering the entry barrier to the TeX world” goes beyond the basics of the TeXworks interface. There are, as always, lots of ideas, with several very important points raised.

One big issue is the separation of TeX distributions, TeX engines and TeX editors. How do you explain to a new user that their editor is not their TeX system, and that their TeX system is independent of the engine they are using. This is all complicated, and it is not easy to put it into two or three sentences! All-in-one installers help to some extent, but that can lead to confusion later.

Another issue is which format to choose as the default. Currently, this is pdfTeX (plain TeX using the pdfTeX engine). Is this a good choice for beginners? Probably not the best, but then almost every other choice has pluses and minuses. If you favour pdfTeX as the engine, using system fonts and Unicode input is more awkward. On the other hand, if XeTeX is the default engine, then there are issues with micrography and interacting with other people. Then there is the LaTeX versus ConTeXt choice, and again you can argue things both ways.

TeXworks is designed around PDF output. That is a good thing in the long term, but at the moment a lot of people still want to use the DVI route. Making that available from within TeXworks is hard to do in a cross-platform way (things that work on *nix fail on Windows).

There are other issues. For example, how much help should be built into TeXworks: again, the TeX format makes a difference here. Error-tracking is another awkward one: the differing formats again do different things.

There are a lot of difficult issues, and they are definitely worth thinking about. One day we’ll have LuaTeX finalised (and perhaps even LaTeX3), and some of these things will be sorted. But at the moment, there is lots to do.

Stefan Löffler has recently posted to the TeXworks mailing list that he’s sorted out a patch to integrate Lua into TeXworks. Many people will be aware that Lua is very much the scripting language of the moment in the TeX world, because of the LuaTeX project. So it makes sense to consider it as a method for scripting TeXworks. The idea has always been that TeXworks will have a simple interface but powerful features available to those who want them. So adding scripting is a vital step forward. With a light-weight scripting system available, power users can code their own features into TeXworks while leaving the basics accessible to everyone.

That doesn’t mean that Lua has to be the (only) language available: Jonathan Kew (TeXworks lead developer) has suggested QtScript (which is JavaScript-like) as a possibility. TeXworks is built using Qt, so there is a definite logic here. As Jonathan himself points out, actually having a patch available certainly means that Lua is likely to be integrated!