[texworks] %!TEX tags

[Alain Schremmer]

On Jun 26, 2010, at 3:36 AM, Stefan Löffler wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Am 2010-06-24 18:07, schrieb Alain Schremmer:
>> Can TeXworks respond to lines such as the following:
>>
>>     %!TEX root =../FOO/\jobname.tex
>>
>> Please note the use of \jobname which would need to have been
>> specially taken care of. And, unfortunately, I am no programmer and
>> thus unable to check the code for myself.
>
> I've posted your feature request and a patch at
> http://code.google.com/p/texworks/issues/detail?id=384.
>
>> I am a completely satisfied user of TeXShop and am inquiring in
>> consideration of the windows users of my stuff which uses this line
>> systematically.
>
> I think this is an intriguing feature, though I'm not sure if most
> "standard" users will know about the meaning of \jobname.

You are right, \jobname is not well known: it appears in passing on  
page 754 of Companion 2ed. But it is a most useful command when you  
have many similar files made from a template. Here is a typical example:

The way I use the %!TEX root tag is as follows:

First, I have two folders: Contents and Controls

---In the Contents folder I have files named 0.tex, (that's for the  
Preface),1.tex, 2.tex etc each of which starts as follows:

		%!TEX root = ../Controls/\jobname.tex
		\chapter{My Chapter One}
			Some text

---In the Controls folder, I have files also named 0.tex, 1.tex,  
2.tex etc each of which is just a copy of:

	\documentclass[11pt]{book}
		\usepackage{xxx}
	\begin{document}
			\addtocounter{page}{0}%Must be adjusted manually from the WholeBook
			\addtocounter{chapter}{\jobbame-1}%This, though, is automatic
		\include{../Contents/\jobname}
	\end{document}

---Thirdly, I have a folder WholeBook which contains the file MyBook  
which is the usual root file:

	\documentclass[11pt]{book}
		\usepackage{xxx}
	\begin{document}
		\frontmatter
			\include{../Contents/1}
			\include{../Contents/2}
			etc
	\end{document}

Thus, I can compile a chapter either from the Content file or from  
the Control file will typeset just the chapter.

In fact, for the sake of symmetry, I am now using the following  
variation on the above theme

I have only the two folders: Contents and Controls in which I have  
the same files as above but also, in addition:

---In the Contents folder:

The file ALL.tex:

	%!TEX root = ../Controls/\jobname.tex
		\include{../Contents/0}%Preface to be numbered along with the  
contents, etc
	\mainmatter
		\include{../Contents/1}
		\include{../Contents/2}	
etc

---In the Controls folder
		
The file ALL.tex:

	\documentclass[11pt]{book}
		\usepackage{xxx}
	\begin{document}
		\frontmatter
			\input{../Contents/ALL}
		\backmatter
			\include{../Text-contents/99}%That's the GNU FDL
			\printindex
	\end{document}


> Is this astandard TeXShop feature (in which case I think we should  
> keep it, for
> the sake of cooperation)?

What is a feature of TeXShop is that, much to the disbelief of many,  
it understands \jobname in that first line. Through sheer idiot's  
luck, I knew and used that but it took Koch to explain why. I am  
quoting:

So I looked at the routine "decodeFile" and discovered this comment:

      // added by John A. Nairn
   // get full path name for possible relative file name in relFile
   // relative is from home

and the last lines of the routine read

	// see if \jobname is there
	searchString = [self filterBackslashes:@"\\jobname"];
	aRange = [saveName rangeOfString:searchString options:NSLiteralSearch];
	if(aRange.location == NSNotFound)
		return saveName;

	// replace \jobname(s)
	saveTemp = [NSMutableString stringWithString:saveName];
	[saveTemp replaceOccurrencesOfString:searchString withString:jobname  
options:NSLiteralSearch
								   range:NSMakeRange(0,[saveName length])];
	return [NSString stringWithString:saveTemp];


> If not, maybe it would be better to change
> this to something a little more intuitive, like "$basename" (keeping
> with the notation for typesetting tools).

Here I am not following you. What is "$basename"? It does not seem to  
appear in Companion 2ed.

But it makes me think of  an extremely useful command in Didier  
Verna's FINK. Here is how I am using it:

\xdef\CheckableItem{\finkdir-\finkbase}
\ifthenelse{\boolean{Quiz?}}%
{%begin Quiz? true
\UseProblem{\CheckableItem-q}%
		{%
QUIZtext%
[...]

Doesn't look like much but given that I have 900 such pages ...

I have forgotten now but, at one point, it would have made my life a  
lot easier had I been able to use FINK's tools in that first line  
tag. Unfortunately, John A. Nairn does not seem to have known about it.

> Maybe we could even do both...

So, yes, I think that it would be a good think to have them both in  
TeXWorks.  More specifically, right now, the system for developing  
and managing ancillaries which is freely downloadable from

		http://www.freemathtexts.org/System/Downloads.php

"should" work with editors under Windows but would most not likely  
not be able to typeset from the Contents files. With TeXWorks  
behaving like TeXShop in that particular, I could write a single set  
of instructions under TeXWorks for the users interested in using the  
ancillaries of my texts but absolutely not in dealing with LaTeX--- 
i.e. teachers who are mostly in the Windows world. But also for  
authors interested in using the "system" to write ancillaries for  
their own text. The system is described in a forthcoming piece in  
PracTeX.

Grateful---and hopeful---regards
--schremmer