[OS X TeX] Replace LaTeX????

[Paul McCann]

Will wrote,

> ...the former [TextMate] has very little TeX support (no nice buttons to 
> tell it when you want to typeset, etc). I toyed with the idea of 
> writing some support files for it but (a) the app costs money, and if 
> I'm going to buy it I kind of want it to work out the box, and (b) it 
> was all based on shell scripts and regex, which I'm not too 
> knowledgeable about.

TextMate's LaTeX support is evolving: it's still not at the stage where
it can match something like TeXShop or iTeXMac, but there are a few
LaTeX bundles in flux at the moment, and the developer seems quite keen
on improving the LaTeX support. Preview in TeXniscope is enabled, as is
one key (rather than one click) support for processing. Those frustrated
with conflicting key shortcuts will be pleasantly surprised to find that
TextMate presents a list of matches when two of its shortcuts are
pointing at the same key sequence. 

Folding is a little funky at the moment: looks to me like "\begin{}" is
being folded at the next "\end{}" occurrence, which isn't correct.  That
is, it's ignoring the contents of the brackets and just going by the
skeleton, thereby failing on nested \begins. 

Anyway, as Will suggested, you probably want to be a fairly keen
scripter to take full advantage of TextMate, but if you fit that
description it's evolving fast (and in an interesting direction): jump
aboard if you can afford the $50, or just give the trial version a go.
The beta's aren't all that "beta-ish", and they form the sweet spot for
now.

Cheers,
Paul
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