[OS X TeX] Correction to "Flashmode for Emacs : Whizztex + Enrico Franconi's Carbon Enhanced Emacs + TeXniscope"

Philipp Mathey pmathey at uwo.ca
Thu Apr 7 02:37:12 CEST 2005


I want to CORRECT something I just wrote :

while describing how to install whizzytex by editing the file 
Makefile.config I forgot to add that the following lines have to 
modified as well :

in the section "Latex implementation" in Makefile.config you should 
have :
INITEX="/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/latex -ini"
LATEX=/usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/latex
FORMAT = latex
FMT = fmt
BIBTEX = /usr/local/teTeX/bin/powerpc-apple-darwin-current/bibtex

These lines are, of course, absolutely crucial; without them you won't 
have a sound installation of whizzytex.

( I would edit my first post to correct this but now it's too late).


Also, it occurred to me that my post may be unclear in one other 
regard. I described how to set up ( i.e. install whizzytex) to work 
together with advi/xdvi/xpdf and then, at the end, described, how to 
edit whizzytex, the bash shell script, and whizzytex.el, the emacs lisp 
file, to work together with TeXniscope. I was assuming ( and forgot to 
mention it) that you already have installed  whizzytex as described in 
my first post before modifying whizzytex and whizzytex.el. What happens 
during the installation is that variables such as  INITEX, LATEX ... in 
whizzytex are set as specified in Makefile.config. Also the style file 
whzzytex.sty is installed in a place where whizzytex can find it.

I only figured out how to use TeXnsicope as a previewer after 
installing whizzytex in the standard way. But really all one needs are 
three files - whizzytex (shell script), whizzytex.el and whizzytex.sty. 
The variables INITEX, LATEX, .. in whizzytex should be set as specified 
above.
In addition, the variable PACKAGE in whizzytex should be set to
/usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/latex/whizzytex.sty.
All these variables are set automatically when installing whizzytex.
In addition you should edit whizzytex (the shell script) as described 
in my first post.

In other words, the easiest way  to install whizzytex so that it works 
with TeXniscope is to first install whizzytex as described in my first 
post, and - very importantly- with the additional modification of 
Makefile.config's  that I forgot to mention, as described at the 
beginning.
After installing whizzytex, you should then edit the shell script 
whizzytex and whizzytex.el , as described in detail in my first post.

However, a manual installation done by manually setting all the 
variables INITEX,... and telling whizzytex where to find whizzytex.sty 
by setting the variable PACKAGE, and doing all the other modifications, 
should work. I have not tried it.

Philipp Mathey



On 6-Apr-05, at 7:33 PM, Philipp Mathey wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I thought it might be of interest to some if I described my current 
> setup : I am using Gerben Wierda's teTeX together with Enrico 
> Franconi's Carbon Enhanced Emacs. The emacs  major mode I am using is 
> UltraTeX ( it provides a so-called lightning completion mode on latex 
> commands and other useful features).  UltraTeX is probably intended 
> for people doing math or physics.  In addition, I am using a minor 
> mode  called WHIZZYTEX . Whizzytex provides a flashmode for emacs ( I 
> have never seen Textures so I don't know what it looks like).
> I was able to get whizzytex to work together with TeXniscope as the 
> previewer.
>
> What exactly does whizzytex do ? The way it works is this. At the 
> beginning of your emacs session you load whizzytex with "M-x 
> whizzytex-mode" , afterwards you can reactivate it with "C-c w". 
> Whizzytex opens up a previewer and compiles a certain region of your 
> document, the so-called "slice" on-the-fly. In other words, every word 
> or symbol that you enter into your emacs buffer appears in the 
> previewer - almost instantaneously. On my outdated 800 Mhz i-book the 
> delay is about 3-4 seconds ( when using TeXnscope; with advi, it's a 
> little faster)
>
> The nice thing about whizzytex is that no matter how large your 
> document is and even with a fairly slow processor you don't have to 
> wait any longer for the compilation to finish. My original motivation 
> for using whizzytex was this : a compilation of a large document of 
> about 70 pages with lots of commutative diagrams (xypic) took at least 
> 15 seconds (when issuing the command to compile from an xterm; from 
> within emacs, it took even longer ( why ?)). I found this annoying. 
> With whizzytex, it takes only a few seconds. Moreover, you don't have 
> to save the document before recompilation.  However, every time you do 
> save the emacs buffer, the whole document is automatically recompiled.
> So for all of you who are not satisfied with the speed of 
> tex-compilations on your machines, whizzytex might be of interest.  
> Two reasons for the dramatically shorter compile time I can think of 
> are
>
> (1) usually tetex has to load all the packages etc specified in the 
> preamble each time you compile the document; whizyytex has to 
> read/load  the preamble at the beginning of the whizzytex-run only 
> once;
>
> (2) whizzytex compiles only the current "slice" of the document; the 
> slice can be the whole document, the chapter, section, subsection, 
> paragraph ... I am using the paragraph mode : one paragraph ends and a 
> new one begins where there are two empty lines in the emacs buffer.
> I changed the default to 4 empty lines. In this way you can easily 
> organize the text in your emacs-buffer into 'paragraphs' (separated by 
> 4 empty lines) such that each paragraph is not too long.
> -
> but there be may be other reasons having something to do with the 
> specific way in which whizzytex analyzes the contents of the slice and 
> keeps track of changes to the slice.
>
>
> What kind of previewers are available ?
>
> advi , xdvi, gv, xpdf and TeXniscope.
>
>
> Using it with advi/xdvi/gv/xpdf :
>
>
> The default previewer for which whizzytex was specifically written is 
> advi (dvi-viewer)
> It also works with  xdvi, gv and (this is new) xpdf.
>
> If you want to use advi, gv or xpdf, you should install them before 
> installing whizzytex.
> For
>
> - advi : install the ocaml library via fink or darwinports, then 
> download the advi package from
> http://pauillac.inria.fr/whizzytex/ and follow the instrcutions ( you 
> need to use ocaml to compile certain libraries) ( you might have to 
> use the unstable branch of fink to get the latest ocaml)
>
> -xdvi : is already installed
>
> -gv:  i-package
>
> -xpdf: via fink or darwinports.
>
>
> Then go to http://pauillac.inria.fr/whizzytex/  and download the 
> latest experimental whizzytex version. cd to the whizzytex directory 
> and look what's inside.
>  Whizzytex was written for linux, so in order to install it on MacOsX 
> one needs to modify the Makefile.config file. I am not quite sure but 
> perhaps you first have to create the Makefile.config file out of the 
> Makefile.config.in file by typing "make menuconfig" . Whizzytex will 
> run a little test to see whether your environment is set up correctly. 
> Since at this point it is not, whizzytex will issue an error message. 
> This will create the desired Makefile.config file. Now you type "sudo 
> pico Makefile.config" to manually edit the file ( I forgot whether the 
> sudo is necessary). You only have to modify one line : the first. You 
> should have "PREFIX = /usr/loca/teTeX" ( I am assuming that you are 
> using Gerben Wierda's teTeX). Then type "make all" and then "sudo make 
> install".
>
> The INSTALL file mentions that one should type "umask 022 make 
> install". I have not tried this, but this might help to avoid some of 
> the permission problems that I ran into later and which I will mention 
> below.
>
> Type
>
> cd  ~
> ln -s whizzytex-*.*.* whizzytex
>
> This will create symbolic link from the whizzytex-version 
> whizzytex-*.*.* which you installed to a directory called 'whizzytex'.
>
> Be default, whizzytex will install the "whizzytex.el" lisp file in 
> /usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs/ , so you should add the 
> following to your .emacs file :
>
> (setq load-path (cons "/usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs"
>                              load-path))
> (require 'whizzytex)
>
> In addition, you should add to the .emacs file the line
>
> (setq-default whizzy-viewers '(("-pdf" "xpdf" )("-advi" "advi") 
> ("-xdvi" "xdvi")("-ps" "gv")))
>
> ( assuming that all these previewers are installed; otherwise, make an 
> intelligent adjustment)
>
> Next open up an xterm or Terminal and type
> cd
> cd /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/
> mkdir ATH
> cd
> cd whizzytex
> You will find a subdirectory called ATH and inside the whizzytex shell 
> script.
> cd ATH
> cp  whizzytex /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/ATH
>
> This way the shell script "whizzytex" is in your PATH but you do not 
> need to become root to copy it into the above location. You could move 
> ATH/whizzytex somewhere else, e.g. into /usr/local/bin, but then you 
> cannot edit it without becoming root.  Doing this and then running 
> whizzytex causes emacs to complain that it cannot find ATH/whizzytex.
> This is the permission problem mentioned earlier.
> ( editing whizzytex is only necessary if you want to use TeXniscope, 
> see below)
>
>
> Now add the following to your default preamble :
> The first lines should be ( each should be on one line) :
>
> %%; whizzy paragraph -pdf "xpdf -bg black -fg blue -g 1025x900 -z 170 
> -remote $$" -initex "pdflatex -ini" -latex  pdflatex
> %; whizzy paragraph -advi advi -A -html Start-Document -(perhaps you 
> like -rv) -geometry 1025x900 -initex "pdflatex -ini" ( or just "latex 
> -ini") -latex pdflatex (or just latex)
> %%; whizzy paragraph -dvi xdvi -expert -rv -s 5 -fullscreen -offsets 0
> %%; whizzy paragraph -ps "gv ..."
>
> Of course, the options for, say xpdf, are mine and you can modify 
> them.  Notice that the advi line begins  with only one %,  the others 
> with more than one. In this case, when you activate whizzytex, 
> whizzytex will choose the advi previewer. A simple addition of an % to 
> advi and the removal of an % from the xpdf line, will make xpdf the 
> previewer. This way you don't have to edit your .emacs file in order 
> to switch previewers.
>
> Now you should be ready, finally.
>
> Since all of the previewers (advi,xdvi,gv,xpdf) use X11, and since 
> somehow whizzytex requires communication between X11 and emacs back 
> and forth, it seems that the only way for whizzytex to work is by 
> doing the following :
>
> -open an xterm.
> -type "/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/sitelisp/emacs"
>
> This will open up Enrico Franconi's Carbon Enhanced Emacs but - this 
> is crucial- this emacs process will be a "child process" of the xterm 
> shell.
> If you open up emacs by clicking on the emacs symbol in the Finder or 
> in the dock, whizzytex won't work ( but it does work with TeXniscope, 
> see below).
>
> Open up some latex document, with the "%; whizzy ..."  lines included 
> in the preamble, and then load whizzytex with "M-x whizzytex-mode" ( 
> by the way, M is the meta-key i.e. the comand key; C is the 
> control-key; it might be necessary for you to go to "X11 Preferences" 
> and un-check the box "Enable key equivalents under X11"; otherwise, I 
> believe, the meta key would be the escape key which would be 
> inconvenient).
>
> Whizzytex should open and it should work.... (hopefully)..
>
> Advi has some rather nice features including syncronicity between the 
> advi preview window and the emacs buffer, also a cool way to toggle 
> the view of the slice and the whole document by pressing 'w' while 
> advi is active.  I should have mentioned earlier that whizzytex has a 
> feature called "duplex" ( C-c d) which opens up a view of the whole 
> document, in addition to the slice.
> For example, if you are looking at the slice and click on a hyperlink 
> to a theorem or something which is located outside of the slice, 
> clicking the link will  cause advi to jump to the corresponding place 
> in the whole-document-window.
>
>
> This is how I was using whizzytex until recently. However, I find that 
> pdf files simply look much better than dvi files. The latest (March 
> 2005, version 1.2.2 or higher) version of whizzytex makes it possible 
> to use xpdf as a previewer. I don't like xpdf very much but I do like 
> TeXniscope .
>
> So now I come finally to ..
>
> Using TeXniscope as a previewer :
>
> -first of all, install TeXniscope.
>
> - ( this first step is optional and only necessary if you wish to edit 
> whizzytex.el; I did so, because I wanted paragraphs to be separated by 
> 4 empty lines rather than the default 2)
>
> open an xterm and type:
>
> cd
> cd /usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs
> cp whizzytex.el ~
>
> (This will create a whizzytex shell script in my home directory which 
> I own so I can edit it)
>
>
> Open ~/whizzytex .el ( say in emacs) and edit it as follows :
>
> - In line 221 you should have
> (defvar whizzy-paragraph-regexp "\n *\n *\n *\n *\n"
>
> - in line 1352 you should have
> (defvar whizzy-load-factor 10
>
> ( I am not quite sure this helps; this is supposed to be the maximal 
> value possible determining the speed of 'slicing' -perhaps it doesn't 
> make much of a difference; default value is 0.6)
>
>
> Next you need edit to your .emacs file so that it contains the lines
>
> (setq load-path (cons "/Users/yourname/" load-path))
> (require 'whizzytex)
>
> (setq-default whizzy-viewers '(("-pdf" 
> "Applications/TeXniscope.app/Contents/MacOS/TeXniscope" )("-advi" 
> "advi") ("-xdvi" "xdvi")("-ps" "gv")))
>
> ( on one line)
>
>
> (assuming that whizzytex.el was copied into  your home directory ( in 
> order to edit it)
> If you didn't edit whizzytex.el, you should have
>
> (setq load-path (cons "/usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs"
>                              load-path))
> (require 'whizzytex)
>
> (setq-default whizzy-viewers '(("-pdf" 
> "Applications/TeXniscope.app/Contents/MacOS/TeXniscope" )("-advi" 
> "advi") ("-xdvi" "xdvi")("-ps" "gv")))
>
> ( on one line)
>
>
> Next the whizzytex shell script needs to be edited. ( I am assuming 
> now that you read through all of the above and followed the 
> instructions. In particular, I am assuming that you created a 
> directory ATH in /Applications/Emacs.app/ Contents/MacOS/bin/  into 
> which you copied whizzytex . This will allow you edit whizzytex 
> without becoming root.  Of course, you could become root and edit it 
> anyway, but then running whizzytex causes whizzytex to complain that 
> it can't  find ATH/whizzytex. At least, that's what happened to me.
> This is the permission problem I mentioned earlier. Anyway, what I am 
> describing works. Open up  /Applications/Emacs.app/ 
> Contents/MacOS/bin/ whizzytex , best in emacs, and modify it as 
> follows :
>
>
> - around line 166, set DUPLEX to false
> (maybe it was set to false by default- I don't remember)
> I.e. you should have
>
> -pdf)
>      LEVEL=1
>      DVI=pdf
> .....
>      FMT=fmt
>      DUPLEX=false
>   ....
>
>
> -  in line 658 or thereabouts  you find a passage that looks like this 
> :
>
> ....
> echo '# End of command' ) >> "OUTPUT"/command
>
> {  $VIEWCOMMAND $WHIZZY.$VIEW $CLIENTVIEW 2>"OUTPUT"/view &
>    echo $! >> #TMP"/pids
>    ID=$!
>    .....
>
> Modify this passage to
>
> ....
> echo '# End of command' ) >> "OUTPUT"/command
>
> {  cp $WHIZZY.$VIEW .pdf
>    $VIEWCOMMAND $WHIZZY.pdf $CLIENTVIEW 2>"OUTPUT"/view &
>    echo $! >> #TMP"/pids
>    ID=$!
>    .....
>
> - in line 670 or so , you will find the function "xpdfreload"
> You should comment out all lines and add
> cp $WHIZZY.$VIEW $WHIZZY.pdf
> i.e. you should have
>
> xpdfreload () {
> cp $WHIZZY.$VIEW $WHIZZY.pdf
> }
>
> immediately afterwards comes the function "whole".
> Below the line "echo '<Whole document updated>'
> add the line
>
> cp $WHIZZY.$VIEW $WHIZZY.pdf
>
> - around line 714 you will find the function "duplex"
> comment out the line
> $VIEWCOMMAND $NAME.$VIEW &
> and replace it by
> $VIEWCOMMAND $NAME.pdf &
>
>
> Finally, in your document preamble the first line should be (on one 
> line)
>
> %; whizzy paragraph -pdf 
> "/Applications/TeXniscope.app/Contents/MacOS/TeXniscope" -initex 
> "pdflatex -ini" -latex  pdflatex
>
> If you want, you can change the AutoRefresh Interval of TeXniscope to 
> 1.0 seconds by opening a Terminal and typing
>
> defaults write TeXniscope AutoRefreshInterval 1.0
>
> That's it ..... finally...
>
> When using TeXniscope as the previewer, you don't need to be running 
> X11. In particular, there is no need to open emacs from the command 
> line of an xterm as before.
> Just open up Emacs and open some latex document, with the %; whizzy 
> .... -line included
> in the first line of the preamble. Then load up whizzytex with "M-x 
> whizzytex-mode".
> TeXniscope should open up and display the current slice. Typing "C-c 
> d" should open up a view of the whole document.
>
> I apologize for this lengthy (first) post of mine. I don't intend to 
> answer any  questions so I spelt it all out.
>
> Finally, I became aware of the existence of whizzytex by doing a 
> google search and stumbling over a post by Nathan Dunfield (July 2003) 
> on this mailing list. The subject of the thread was something else. 
> Nathan mentioned in his post the existence of Advi and whizzytex. I 
> would like to thank him for bringing whizzytex to my attention.
>
> Philipp Mathey
>
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