[OS X TeX] Flashmode for Emacs : Whizzytex + Enrico Franconi's Carbon Enhanced Emacs + TeXniscope

Philipp Mathey pmathey at uwo.ca
Thu Apr 7 21:13:22 CEST 2005


(Joseph Slater asked me to put my original post and the correction into  
a single document.
I rewrote it and added a few  ---- lines to make it more readable )


------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--------------------------------------------------------
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 On my outdated 800 Mhz i-book the  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)
------------------------------------------------------------------
What is nice 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.
Whizzytex compiles continuously. The delay is only a few seconds.
  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 those of you who are not satisfied with the speed of tex,  
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 advi/xdvi/gv/xpdf as previewer :
------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
----------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------

Next, you need to install whizzytex.

Go to http://pauillac.inria.fr/whizzytex/  and download the latest  
experimental whizzytex version ( with xpdf support). 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 should have in the first line
  PREFIX = /usr/loca/teTeX
and further down in the section "Latex implementation" 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

( 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'.

-----------------------------------

Next you need to edit your .emacs file :

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.
----------------------
-  instruct whizzytex as described above (you shouldn't need to have  
advi installed; as long as whizzytex detects that at least one of  
advi/xdvi/gv is installed, the installation should work).
For the sake of completeness , here are the installation instructions :
-----------------------------
Go to http://pauillac.inria.fr/whizzytex/  and download the latest  
experimental whizzytex version (with xpdf support). 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 should have in the first line
  PREFIX = /usr/loca/teTeX
and further down in the section "Latex implementation" 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

( 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'.
-----------------------------------

Actually, whizzytex uses only three files : the shell script  
'whizzytex', the emacs lisp file 'whizzytex.el' and the whizzytex style  
file 'whizzytex.sty'. During the installation, certain variables such  
as LATEX, INITEX etc in 'whizzytex' are set as specified in the file  
Makefile.config . Also, the variable PACKAGE is set to
  /usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/latex/whizzytex.sty
to let 'whizzytex' know where to find the style file 'whizzytex.sty'.  
Moreover, these three files are installed in certain locations
- 'whizzytex' in a newly created subdirectory called ATH of the  
'whizzytex' directory ( the directory in which you do the installation)
- 'whizzytex.sty' in /usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/latex/, and
- 'whizzytex.el' in /usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs

It should be possible to just set the variables just mentioned the way  
I just described it and put the three files manually in the right  
places. You wouldn't even have to install whizzytex ( via make etc) ,  
just put the three files, suitably edited, in the right places.  
However, I have not tried this. So perhaps the best thing to do is to  
first install whizzytex as described above  and then to edit and move  
'whizzytex' and 'whizzytex.el' as outlined below to make them work   
together with TeXniscope.
--------------------------------
- ( this 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)
-------------------------------

Open 'whizzytex.el' in emacs ( either it is located in your home  
directory if you did the previous step or otherwise in  
/usr/local/teTeX/share/whizzytex/emacs/

Find the menu option "Byte-compile this file" . This will create the  
file 'whizzytex.elc'.
-------------------------------

Next you need edit to your .emacs file.

If you did did the optional step of moving whizzytex.el to your home  
directory and editing it,
you should have :

(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)

If you didn't move 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 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.

-------------------------------------------


Next, you need to edit the shell script 'whizzytex' .

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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