[texworks] About the native PDF viewer (feature request and a question)

[Paul A Norman]

Hi Edoardo,

> As a workaround, can TeXworks be configured to work with SumatraPDF
> (SyncTeX enabled build) ? I don't seem to be able to find anything
> related.

Going in one direction ...

TeXworks (even scripting) can tell you the line number the editor is
in when a script is activated. It may be possible to use a system call
to use syncable version of  Sumatra  to open a pdf at a certain line.
(Sumatra is a standalone executable with no dependacies afaik).

.. Then going in the other direction, are you looking for information
on a command line switch for what happens when you doubleclick in
SumatraPDF?

I.e what options to set inside Sumatra (or any other syncinable pdf
viewer for that matter ) to call TeXworks..?

I'm not sure that TeXworks is yet set to receive such switches (file
name and line number) when being called or opened... ?

afaik Sumatra is Windows only - and somewhat under Wine in Linux, so
broadening this out to cope more generally ...

Can we make TeXworks monitor a  port we could safely address in  a
running copy of TeXworks - would be ideal and have a certain list of
accepted registered commands like open this .tex document (if not
already open) at this line number, and bring the appropriate editor
window into focus? Perhaps also a 'port' command in the acceptable
list that says insert this text at cursor position/line number?

So other applications (platform independent) can generally "talk" to
TeXworks. (Perhaps even the reverse as well? Tw able to talk to
another application's port?)

Tw polling a user defined port (- with an established 'factory set'
default number) for - "command", "text1", "text2", ... , "end"

Instead, perhaps tying in with planned developments for being able to
call scripts that Stefan has mentioned,  the only acceptable 'port'
received   command could even just be strings "<ScriptName>",
"varaibleOne", "VariableTwo", ..., "end".  And already registered/user
approved scripts are the only thing a port command can run?

Would there be an actual security risk?

Or Edoardo, are you just looking for a means to yourself in C++ more
directly integrate Sumatra into TeXworks itself (replacing poppler)?

I'd really like the general solution for wider possibilities :)

But then I wouldn't be doing all the hard C++ ...

Paul

On 29 April 2011 01:52, Edoardo Vacchi <uncommonnonsense at gmail.com> wrote:
> The native viewer feels odd to me sometimes.
>
> I wish that holding the down arrow would make the viewer not block to
> the end of the current page; also I'd expect page down to scroll the
> view not to change to a new page.
>
> Is it possible to add "continuous" scrolling to the viewer? that is,
> when a page ends, being able to see the top of the one which follows
> (like in a word processor)?
>
> As a workaround, can TeXworks be configured to work with SumatraPDF
> (SyncTeX enabled build) ? I don't seem to be able to find anything
> related.
>
> Thanks a lot and keep it up, I like TeXworks, it's simple but it does
> what I need.
>
> e.v.
>