[OS X TeX] Re: List of feature requests on this list

[Adam R. Maxwell]

On Jul 7, 2008, at 6:47 PM, Ross Moore wrote:

> Hi Adam,
>
> On 08/07/2008, at 8:08 AM, Adam R. Maxwell wrote:
>>
>> On Monday, July 07, 2008, at 02:52PM, "Ross Moore" <ross at ics.mq.edu.au 
>> > wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>
>>> What I'd like is for one such floating window to be the target
>>> of cross-reference hyperlinks in the main PDF viewing window.
>>> That way you can check on the content of a cross-reference
>>> without changing the view that is being used to read the paper.
>>
>> Skim does this when you command-click on a link in the PDF file.
>
> Aaaah; yes. That's much better.
> After a few of those, the hover effect works better too.

It's odd that it would start working correctly...maybe there's a  
caching bug in Skim.

>> It's quite handy for reading references.
>
> Indeed.
>
>> It also tries to display a preview of the target when you hover  
>> over a link, but this has mixed results.
>
> Presumably there is a time-delay, probably related to
> the need to render the entire document in memory,
> before the extra windows and pop-ups can work smoothly.

Maybe if you're on 10.4; PDF Kit used to have some delayed layout  
issues.  I think Skim forces a full parse of the document by walking  
annotations, though.

The problems I'm thinking of are related to incorrect PDF link  
destinations or Apple's interpretation of them.  For instance, some  
PDF links will point only to a page, rather than the exact location on  
the page.  Hyperref does a pretty good job, but many published PDF  
files are terrible in this regard.

>>> Even better would be if the size of this "cross-reference spyglass"
>>> would resize automatically, adapting to the size of the material
>>> being referenced --- i.e., to the size of the rectangle associated
>>> to the destination anchor, as well as respecting its view  
>>> attributes.
>>>
>>> That is, it could be a rectangle neatly encompassing a figure or  
>>> table,
>>> changing to a squat wide rectangle for a referenced equation or
>>> citation.
>>
>> Skim also does this, to some extent.  There are compromises with  
>> remembering window positions, and also limitations of what  
>> information is available from the PDF itself.
>
> Sure. Is there documentation anywhere about this?
> The application Help doesn't give details of the
> features, just basic "how to use" stuff.

The only relevant sections I see are these:

http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/manual/Skim%20Help_23.html#SEC62

http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/manual/Skim%20Help_22.html#SEC59

There might be more details in the skim-app-users or skim-app-develop  
mailing list archives.

> I'd prefer the snapshot windows to have smaller frames,
> whereas currently they are like full Macintosh windows.

I can't figure out what they're supposed to be doing from the source,  
since things have changed tremendously since I was involved.  I think  
some of the settings should be remembered, but it always gives me 100%  
zoom and the same size window when I cmd-click.

You can select a rectangular region with the selection tool and cmd- 
click inside it to produce a snapshot of that region, also.  This  
would be useful for equations and figures.

> Though the ability to minimize into the side-pane
> is really neat. This allows the snapshots to be pushed
> out of the way, yet still be easily recoverable.

They can supposedly be preserved across launches of Skim, too, if you  
check "Remember snapshots" in the preferences.

>> This is all in addition to the splitview feature that Adam G.  
>> mentioned previously.
>
> Can the split views be associated separately
> with the split views in the TeXshop editor?
> I think that would satisfy the OP's request.

No.  That would require tight coupling between the applications  
(unless you can do it with AppleScript; I didn't check the AS  
dictionary).

-- 
Adam