Fwd: preview-latex availability

Fwd: preview-latex availability

[Hans Hagen]

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Hi,

In addition to the preview emacs thing, here are some files describing it;

Hans

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Release notes for version 0.7.2 of the preview-latex package:

preview-latex is a system for displaying inline images of selected
parts of a file in Emacs source buffers.  The employed style file
preview.sty is independently useful for extraction of selected text
elements as images.  The package is released under the GNU Public
License (GPL).  At the current point of time, at least GNU Emacs-21.1
under the X window system, AUC TeX (11.11 recommended, see below), a
working LaTeX installation and GhostScript are required.  This version
for the first time also fully supports XEmacs with a version of at
least 21.1.14.  Some issues with the display engine have been
uncovered in the course of porting; consult the PROBLEMS file for more
information.  No Emacs versions of preview-latex have yet been tested
to run under the MS Windows operating system.  Recent CVS versions of
Emacs could possibly be made to run preview-latex there, and we have
had a positive report with Cygwin XEmacs.  Please report your
experiences.

Release 0.7.2 is a consolidation release containing mostly bug fixes.
Its stability should be sufficient for third party package providers
of GNU Emacs packages.  The XEmacs part still has rough edges, partly
due to XEmacs internal bugs that are expected to be ironed out in
future XEmacs releases.

The README file provides adequate information for preinstalled
distributions.  The INSTALL file contains a special section with
advice for package providers.

User feedback about errors and suggested feature improvements is
welcome and heeded.  The home page is
<URL:http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net>, the SourceForge project
page that among others offers anonymous CVS access is located at
<URL:http://sourceforge.net/projects/preview-latex>.

If you can spare the time, you can also comment on or rate this
project at <URL:http://freshmeat.net/projects/preview-latex>.

Additional files can be found at
<URL:http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preview-latex>:

* If you don't have texinfo 4.0 or later installed, prebuilt
  documentation files can be found there.

* AUC TeX can be found at several places, but if you want the latest
  11.11 (alpha, but stable AFAIK) with no known issues concerning
  preview-latex, you can find it there as well.

* RPMs for preview-latex and AUC TeX are provided for users of RedHat
  Linux.  For the binary RPMs, you will need the preview-latex-common
  RPM as well as the Emacs-flavor specific RPM.

The RPMs require a few packages:

* GhostScript 6.51 is included in RH 7.2, but if you use an earlier
  release it can be downloaded from the RH7.2 updates,
  <URL:ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/updates/7.2/en/os/i386/>.
  The current beta of RedHat 7.3 (see below) includes GhostScript 6.53.

* Emacs-21.2 is part of the beta release for RedHat 7.3 at
  <URL:ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/beta/skipjack/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS/>
  unless it has already been superceded by the regular release.
  I installed this using 'rpm -i --nodeps --force', which worked for
  me, but since it does not follow the usual emacs + emacs-X11 +
  emacs-nox, YMMV.

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preview-latex in a nutshell
***************************

Does your neck hurt from turning between previewer windows and the
source too often? This Elisp/LaTeX package will render your displayed
LaTeX equations right into the editing window where they belong.

   The purpose of preview-latex is to embed LaTeX environments such as
display math or figures into the source buffers.  By mouse-clicking, you
can open the original text.  After editing, another click will just run
the region in question through LaTeX and redisplay the new results.

   If preview-latex has not come in the form of a preinstalled package
for you, consult the `INSTALL' file for installation instructions
(especially, read the Prerequisites section).

Activating preview-latex
========================

   After installation, the package may need to be activated (and
remember to activate AUC TeX too).  In XEmacs, and in some prepackaged
versions for GNU Emacs, activation is automatic upon installation, but
otherwise, the activation line that needs to be added to your own
`.emacs' file or to a site-wide initialization file is

     (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'LaTeX-preview-setup)

For a well-configured prepackaged version, no more than that should be
required.  If you installed preview-latex yourself, at least the line

     (autoload 'LaTeX-preview-setup "preview")

is also needed.  And in case the directory to which the Elisp files have
been installed is not known to Emacs, a line like

     (add-to-list 'load-path "/WHATEVER/DIRECTORY")

needs to be added as well.

Getting started
===============

   Once activated, preview-latex and its documentation will be
accessible from AUC TeX's menus.  When you have loaded a LaTeX document
(a sample document `circ.tex' is included in the distribution, but most
documents including math and/or figures should do), you should be able
to spot "Preview" in AUC TeX's menus. Use the menus, or press `C-c C-c
g <RET>' (for the menu entry `Command/Generate Preview') or `C-c C-p
C-d' (for `LaTeX/Preview/Document').  Previews will now be generated
for various objects in your document.  You can use the time to take a
short look at the other menu entries and key bindings in the
`LaTeX/Preview' menu.  You'll see the previewed objects change into a
roadworks sign when preview-latex has determined just what it is going
to preview.  Note that you can freely navigate the buffer while this is
going on.  When the process is finished you will see the objects
typeset in your buffer.

   It is a bad idea, however, to edit the buffer before the roadworks
signs appear, since that is the moment when the correlation between the
original text and the buffer locations gets established.  If the buffer
changes before that point of time, the previews will not be placed where
they belong. If you do want to change some obvious error you just
spotted, we recommend you stop the background process by pressing `C-c
C-k'.

   To see/edit the LaTeX code for a specific object, put the point (the
cursor) on it and press `C-c C-p C-p' (for `LaTeX/Preview/on/off at
point').  It will also do to click with the middle mouse button on the
preview.  Now you can edit the code, and generate a new preview by
again pressing `C-c C-p C-p' (or by clicking with the middle mouse
button on the icon before the edited text).

   If you are using the `desktop' package, previews will remain from
one session to the next as long as you don't kill your buffer.  If you
are using XEmacs, you will probably need to upgrade the package to the
newest one; things are being fixed just as I am writing this.

More documentation
==================

   After the installation, documentation in the form of an info manual
will be available.  You can access it with the standalone info reader
with

     info preview-latex

or by pressing `C-h i d m preview-latex <RET>' in Emacs. Once
preview-latex is activated, you can instead use `C-c C-p <TAB>' (or the
menu entry `LaTeX/Preview/Read documentation').

   Depending on your installation, a printable manual may also be
available in the form of `preview-latex.dvi' or `preview-latex.ps'.

   Detailed documentation for the LaTeX style used for extracting the
preview images is placed in `preview.dvi' in a suitable directory
during installation; on typical teTeX-based systems,

     texdoc preview

will display it.

Availability
============

   The preview-latex project is available at SourceForge.  In addition
to the main source tarball, we provide prebuilt documentation files
there for those lacking a recent enough version of makeinfo, and source
and binary `.rpm' files suitable for a recent RedHat system. Anonymous
CVS is available as well. The SourceForge project page of preview-latex
is `http://sourceforge.net/projects/preview-latex'.

Contacts
========

   Bug reports should be sent by using `M-x preview-report-bug <RET>',
as this will fill in a lot of information interesting to us. If the
installation fails (but this should be a rare event), report bugs to
<preview-latex-bugs@lists.sourceforge.net>.

   Questions, suggestions for new features, pleas for help, and/or
praise should go to <preview-latex-devel@lists.sourceforge.net> (the
preview-latex devel team).  For more information on this mailing list,
send a message with just the word `help' as subject or body to
<preview-latex-devel-request@lists.sourceforge.net> or look at
`http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/preview-latex-devel'.
Please use the command `M-x preview-report-bug <RET>' to report bugs if
possible.

   Offers to support further development will be appreciated.  For
developer access, ask on <preview-latex-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.

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                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
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                     documentation: http://www.pragma-ade.com/showcase.pdf
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