[OS X TeX] Imposing Latex on authors of articles

[Bruno Voisin]

Le 26 févr. 08 à 15:58, ludwik kowalski a écrit :

> 1) Typing something without seeing the representation at the same  
> time (as in writing by hand or with a word processor) seems  
> unnatural to me.

There is something called Flash Mode, in which every keystroke  
initiates compilation of your input so that you can have two windows  
side-by-side, one containing your LaTeX input and the other the  
compiled output. As a result, the output is constantly and almost  
instantaneously updated as you're typing your input.

It was introduced with the commercial Textures, which is still  
available <http://www.bluesky.com/news/220b.html> but a bit rough for  
daily use at present (they still haven't completed the transition to  
OS X). I use it happily myself, but you've got to accept its current  
limitations.

There is an alternative Flash Mode, working with TeXShop and  
implemented by Claus Gerhardt through a set of AppleScripts <http://www.math.uni-heidelberg.de/studinfo/gerhardt/Flashmode/ 
 >. There's a free version and a commercial version. I've not used it  
myself, but others on this list can probably report on their  
experience with it.

Finally if you're really a WYSIWYG person, you might prefer LyX <http://wiki.lyx.org/Mac/Mac?from=LyX.Mac 
 > to LaTeX proper. It's closer to WYSIWYG, but less flexible: I've  
not used it myself, but from what I read it's difficult nay impossible  
to get LyX use an arbitrary class or file to you might have to use (if  
imposed by a given scientific journal or publisher for example).

There's also TeXmacs <http://www.texmacs.org/> which seems quite  
similar to LyX, but its community seems less active and its  
installation on OS X is not as straightforward.

Hope this helps,

Bruno Voisin