[texhax] Fwd: [CIT]: file association in Windows 7

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2011-03-16 at 12:25:07 -0400, Fred Lowery wrote:

 > Hi,
 > 
 > See email below:
 > 
 > I know this is more a Windows 7 issue than LaTeX but thought I
 > would try here. I'm sure he's not the only person using Windows 7
 > and wondered if you could help us with this?

I don't have a solution, but since Dan has set up the file name
associations already and it still doesn't work as expected, maybe it's
helpful to run the programs assoc and ftype (without any arguments!)
from the command line and look for suspicious entries regarding the
particular associations.  These programs are supposed to create
associations, but when called without any arguments they simply print
the current settings to screen.  It's probably easier to investigate
the content within a text editor rather than in a DOS box.  The output
can be directed to files:

  assoc > assoc.txt
  ftype > ftype.txt

assoc associates a file name extension with a string and ftype
associates a string with a program.  Don't know why it has to be so
complicated.  When inspecting the output of the programs, look for
duplicate entries.

On the other hand, I'm wondering whether it's useful to have such
associations at all.  Because you have to run LaTeX again after
creating the index (and/or the bibliography), it seems to be much more
convenient to prepare a batch file instead.

Anyway, Dan said that he cannot remove the associations he already
created.  I wasn't able to create associations on XP because an older
version of a program left over some stuff in the registry.  I had to
repair the registry manually each time I installed a newer version of
the program.  IMO the registry is a big mess and it's certainly more
straightforward to simply create a batch file which contains what you
would type on the command line.  You need one batch file for each
project, but since a batch file can contain more than one command, it
saves you a lot of time on the long term.  And the extension '.bat' is
recognized by Windows already.

A better solution is to use a program like 'latexmk', a tool which
inspects LaTeX's log files in order to determine how many LaTeX runs
are actually needed. It runs makeindex and bibtex if necessary, and so
on.  latexmk is part of TeX Live but since it's a Perl script, I doubt
that it's part of MiKTeX.  I suppose that with a separately installed
Perl one can make latexmk work under MiKTeX too, but I must admit that
I've no experience.

Regards,
  Reinhard





 
 > Thanks,
 > 
 > Fred Lowery
 > Client Support Analyst
 > CIT Mudd 009
 > Oberlin College
 > Oberlin, Ohio 44074
 > 
 > 
 > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
 > From: Dan Styer <dstyer at oberlin.edu>
 > Date: Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 10:20 AM
 > Subject: [CIT]: file association in Windows 7
 > To: OBERLIN WEBMAIL HELP DESK <cit at oberlin.edu>
 > 
 > 
 > Hello:
 > 
 > I am using Windows 7 on an HP ProBook 6550b.
 > 
 > I have certain filestypes that I wish to associate with certain
 > programs.  For example, I want to associate files of type .html with
 > Notepad, whereas the default is to associate them with Firefox.  I do
 > this by "right click | Open With ... | Browse".
 > 
 > Most of the time this works.
 > 
 > But I want to associate the filetype .idx with the LaTeX Index
 > Processor makeindex.exe.  I have this program on my disk and can run
 > it in a command prompt window without a problem.  But when I try to
 > associate this filetype with makeindex.exe it doesn't work... when I
 > press "Open With... " the program makeindex.exe appears twice, and
 > neither entry runs the program.  I have tried to delete one or the
 > other or both of the appearances, but Windows does not allow this.
 > 
 > Please do not respond by saying that "We don't support LaTeX."  As I
 > have told you above, LaTeX is working perfectly, it's Windows 7 that's
 > not working.  And you do support Windows.
 > 
 > Sincerely,
 > Dan Styer
 > 
 > ===================================================
 > Daniel F. Styer              Dan.Styer at oberlin.edu
 > Professor of Physics         (440)775-8183
 > Oberlin College              Wright Laboratory 215
 > Oberlin, Ohio  44074-1088
 > USA           http://www.oberlin.edu/physics/dstyer
 > 
 > _______________________________________________
 > TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
 > Mailing list archives: http://tug.org/pipermail/texhax/
 > More links: http://tug.org/begin.html
 > 
 > Automated subscription management: http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/texhax
 > Human mailing list managers: postmaster at tug.org

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
Marschnerstr. 25
D-30167 Hannover                              mailto:reinhard.kotucha at web.de
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft isn't the answer. Microsoft is the question, and the answer is NO.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------