[tex-live] texworks in TL 2010

[Lars Madsen]

On 2010-11-13 03:40, Axel E. Retif wrote:
> On  12 Nov, 2010, at 10:49, Lars Madsen wrote:
>
>> please keep your sarcasm to your self.
>
> I certainly would consider it..., if you consider stop annoying TL
> maintainers *demanding* features *you* think have to be implemented
> in TL and ``fixes''(?) *you* think have to be made.[1]
>
>> We are trying to get more users to start using LaTeX (and friends)
>> and exactly how many pdftex (engine) users are there compared to
>> pdflatex users?
>
> First, pdfTeX *is* the engine, whether you use plain or LaTeX formats
> (plain or LaTeX macros).

I know, that was a typo on my part, my point has been mare also by 
others, as there are some many more (pdf)LaTeX users than plain TeX, 
XeLaTeX and ConTeXt users combined (my estimate), why not please the 
majority.

>
> Second, it seems to me you are doing a disservice to your students if
> you think it's a big problem for them to configure an application to
> their needs ---almost every application in every platform has a
> ``Preferences'' or ``Options'' menu for that purpose ---you know
> DEK's words: ``Computers are good at following instructions, but not
> at reading your mind'' (p. 9).
>

I do not agree, as mentioned elsewhere, new users have no idea what 
these things are.

I really like TL especially the net installer, there is nothing to think 
about, press next and then install and wait until it finishes. Job done.

Just one little thing extra, and we would have a killer app set for new 
users.

>> Tools that do not work out of the box for the average new user
>> gives the user a bad experience
>
> Really? Not reading *your* mind means they don't work out of the
> box?
>
> ---- [1] If you think MiKTeX ---granted, a wonderful distribution---
> is so superior to TL, why don't you advise your students to use it?
> After all, you get the same binaries and, I think, the same
> packages. Personally, I find TL structure (texmf trees updated by
> tlmgr, texmf-local for year-independent system-wide additions,
> ~/texmf for personal additions and the working directory for very
> specific macros) more than enough for *my* work. Now ---if you have
> had the patience to read this far, let me recommend you the excellent
> multiplatform LaTeX editor TeXmaker:
>

I do not think MT is superior, I've never used it professionally, just 
helped configure it for several students. And commented that some of 
ideas in their interfaces would also be a nice thing in TL.

I recommend TL for all our users for the sole reason that then al have 
the same distribution on Win, Linux and MAC. And the various tools work 
out of the box (e.g. makeglossaries)

And texdoc on TL is a lot better than the MT version (last I checked).


> http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
>

texmaker is a really good editor, the reason why we recommend TeXWorks 
is that is comes with TL (or MT) and because of the build in PDF viewer 
with forward and inverse search.

Also the spell checker is really good. We usually recommend even 
non-TeXWorks users to install TeXWorks in order to have an available 
editor with good spell checking.

I've never managed to get Danish spell checking to work correctly in the 
other popular editor TeXnicCenter. (haven;t tried it in TeXmaker)

/daleif