[texworks] Beginners' needs (was: Lua scripting)

Jérome Laurens jerome.laurens at u-bourgogne.fr
Wed Jun 17 13:31:02 CEST 2009


Le 17 juin 09 à 02:13, David J. Perry a écrit :

> I have been working hard for not quite a year now at learning  
> Xe(La)TeX, using TeXworks all the while. I've read with interest the  
> threads about Lua and other proposals for expanding TeXworks.  I'm  
> not a programmer, so I can't express an opinion about those things  
> directly.  I would like to offer the following thoughts.  This email  
> is a bit long, but I really like TeXworks and want to see it  
> flourish, so I'll go ahead.
>
> 1. Do keep it simple (uncluttered GUI) and do keep the beginner's  
> needs in mind.
>
> 2. I think TeXworks acutally _needs_ only three enhancements (as  
> opposed things that are nice, fun, cool but not essential).
>
> 3. In fact, I think TeXworks works so well that I'd like to see the  
> official version 1 sooner rather than later.  This would let more  
> people try it. (BTW: thanks to Alain for those Windows binaries.  I  
> do a lot of computer related stuff, but have no interest in  
> buildling software!)
>
> 4. The three enhancements that I think are truly needed include:
> a. a better manual and/or integrated help system
> b. the ability to print source code (for debugging this is sometimes  
> convenient) as well as the PDF output
> c. improved help with errors

May I add

5) Help by contents: ask your question and you'll get an answer.
Something like
Q) How do I typeset in 3 columns?
A) Use the multicols package (in LaTeX)
In short, something like a searchable FAQ

6) An entry point to a forum, because online help is outperformed by  
human help.

JL


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