[Tugindia] how to identify the page break without xdvi

[Sandip P Deshmukh]

On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 10:25:44AM +0100, David Kastrup wrote:
> Sandip P Deshmukh <deshmukh at escortsmumbai.com> writes:
> 
> > On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 01:09:38PM +0530, S.C.Phatak wrote:
> > > 
> > i would much prefer to edit tex in vim in console, do basic
> > formatting like managing pagination, etc. *then* start x and use
> > xdvi for finer formatting.
> 
> If you consider "managing pagination" "basic formatting", chances are
> that you are using LaTeX wrong.  LaTeX goes to great pains to choose
> page breaks appropriately itself.  It manages placing figures,
> footnotes and other material so that pages will be laid out well.
> Cross references are managed automatically and refer to the right
> page numbers.  Pagination is _not_ supposed to be something that the
> user should need to worry about.  As a consequence, changing paper
> formats, switching to twocolumn format, converting to HTML and so on
> are usually quite painless _if_ the user has entered the things as he
> should.  Manual page breaks are a very bad idea.

point well taken. as i said, i am a newbie here and have come here from
a windows background. david, imagine someone who had been using ms word
(i find it trash now) on ms windows (i shudder at the thought now) for
ages and some who has just recently switched to linux and latex.

so, i try to map things from windows/ word to linux/ latex and this
leads to trouble initially. then i discover better and more elegant ways
of doing it.

i have gone through the same process in my mail programs, my editor and
now latex. i must admit that had it not been for excellent help from
'gurus' in respective fields, i could never have been able to switch.

this specific question arose becuase i wanted to make sure that the last
bullet or just two one line bullets do not go on the next page. this may
not be standard but that is how i wanted it.

so, i was switching between xdvi and vi instering /newpage at
appropriate places. so i wanted a simpler solution.

> If you really wanted to, you could use one of the few available dvi
> to terminal output converters which obviously will manage to show the
> page and line breaks, though probably not much else in recognizable
> form.
> 
> There is also some sort of dvi previewer available for the Linux
> frame buffer device, but I don't remember its name right now, and it
> is quite less powerful than xdvi IIRC.

thanx. i will look around for the same.

> > > If you use xemacs instead of vim, you can do this within xemacs
> > > itself. Actually, xemacs is a better editor and one can easily
> > > install it on linux systems.
> > 
> > debatable :) i have read great praises of emacs and xemacs but
> > somehow found vim to be quick and easy and more 'logical'. as i
> > said, highly debatable. but may be a couple of more praises on emacs
> > and may be, i will give it a try?
> 
> Emacs does not qualify as quick, easy and logical, in the same manner
> the English language does not qualify as being quick, easy and
> logical.  The expressive power more than makes up for the learning
> curve quite soon.

no comments. dont want to start a flame war! imagine where will it lead
to if some post like this were to appear on vim at vim.org! or replace
emacs with vim and post it to emacs mailing list :)

> While Emacs can also be run on the console, the help and menu system
> will be more accessible in an X session, and juggling with
> previewers, graphics creation programs and the like becomes easier.

sure. point well taken.

> The main tools for TeX development under Emacs are
> AUCTeX<URL:http://www.nongnu.org/auctex> and
> RefTeX<URL:http://zon.astro.uva.nl/~dominik/Tools/reftex/>.  If you find
> working under X something you can bring yourself to (be sure to use
> high contrast colors and a large font, X should not mean ruining your
> eyes), <URL:http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net> will help with
> arranging equations and other visual matter.  Although if your main
> previewing problem is viewing page breaks, this might not matter much
> to you.

well, most of my input is plain english text - may be tabulated and
bulleted or numbered. etc. but i have read praises on auctex. i think i
am getting closer to using emacs :)

-- 
regards,
sandip p deshmukh
------***--------
As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't
as easy to get programs right as we had thought.  Debugging had to be
discovered.  I can remember the exact instant when I realized that a large
part of my life from then on was going to be spent in finding mistakes in
my own programs.
		-- Maurice Wilkes, designer of EDSAC, on programming, 1949