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diff --git a/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-WYGexpts.html b/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-WYGexpts.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..f094dab05c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-WYGexpts.html @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ +<head> +<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label WYGexpts</title> +</head><body> +<h3>The TeX document preparation environment</h3> +<p><p>"<a href="FAQ-notWYSIWYG.html">Why TeX is not WYSIWYG</a>" +outlines the reasons (or excuses) for the huge disparity of user +interface between "typical" TeX environments and commercial word +processors. +<p>Nowadays, at last, there is a range of tools available that try either +to bridge or to close the gap. One range modestly focuses on +providing the user with a legible source document. At the other +extreme we have <a href="http://www.texmacs.org"><i>TeXmacs</a></i>, +a document processor using +TeX's algorithms and fonts for both editor display and printing. +<i>TeXmacs</i> does not use the TeX +language itself (though among other formats, LaTeX may be exported +and imported). A bit closer to LaTeX is +<a href="http://www.lyx.org/">LyX</a>, which has its own +editor display and file formats as well, but does its print output by +exporting to LaTeX. The editor display merely resembles the +printed output, but you have the possibility of entering arbitrary +LaTeX code. If you use constructs that LyX does not +understand, it will just display them as source text marked red, but +will properly export them. +<p>Since a lot of work is needed to create an editor from scratch that +actually is good at editing (as well as catering for TeX), it is +perhaps no accident that several approaches have been implemented +using the extensible <i>emacs</i> editor. The low end of the +prettifying range is occupied by syntax highlighting: marking TeX +tokens, comments and other stuff with special colours. +Many free editors (including <i>emacs</i>) can cater for TeX in +this way. Under Windows, one of the more popular editors with such +support is the +Shareware product <a href="http://www.winedt.com/"><i>winedt</a></i>. +Continuing the range of +tools prettifying your input, we have the <i>emacs</i> package +<a href="http://x-symbol.sourceforge.net"><i>x-symbol</a></i>, which does +the WYSIWYG part of its work by replacing single TeX tokens and +accented letter sequences with appropriate-looking characters on the +screen. +<p>A different type of tool focuses on making update and access to +previews of the typeset document more immediate. A recent addition +in several viewers, editors and TeX executables are so-called +'source specials' for cross-navigation. When TeX compiles a +document, it will upon request insert special markers for every input +line into the typeset output. The markers are interpreted by the DVI +previewer which can be made to let its display track the page +corresponding to the editor input position, or to let the editor jump +to a source line corresponding to a click in the preview window. +<p>An <i>emacs</i> package that combines this sort of editor movement +tracking with automatic fast recompilations (through the use of dumped +formats) is +<a href="http://pauillac.inria.fr/whizzytex/"><i>WhizzyTeX</a></i> + which is best used with a previewer by the +same author. A simpler package in a similar spirit is called +<a href="http://www.activetex.org/"><i>InstantPreview</a></i> and makes +use of a continuously running copy of TeX +(under the moniker of <code>TeX daemon</code>) instead of dumping formats to +achieve its speed. +<p>Another <i>emacs</i> package called +<a href="http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net"><i>preview-latex</a></i> +tries to solve +the problem of visual correlation between source and previews in a +more direct way: it uses a LaTeX package to chop the document source +into interesting fragments (like figures, text or display math) which +it runs through LaTeX and replaces the source text of those +fragments with the corresponding rendered output images. Since it +does not know about the structure of the images, at the actual cursor +position the source text is displayed while editing rather than the +preview. This approach is more or less a hybrid of the source +prettifying and fast preview approaches since it works in the source +buffer but uses actual previews rendered by LaTeX. +<p>A more ambitious contender is called TeXlite. This +system is only available on request from its author; +it continuously updates its screen with the help of a special version +of TeX dumping its state in a compressed format at each page and +using hooks into TeX's line breaking mechanism for reformatting +paragraphs on the fly. That way, it can render the output from the +edited TeX code with interactive speed on-screen, and it offers the +possibility of editing directly in the preview window. +<p>That many of these systems occupy slightly different niches can be +seen by comparing the range of the +<i>emacs</i>-based solutions ranging from syntax highlighting to instant +previewing: all of them can be activated at the same time without +actually interfering in their respective tasks. +<p>The different approaches offer various choices differing in the +immediacy of their response, the screen area they work on (source or +separate window), degree of correspondance of the display to the final +output, and the balance they strike between visual aid and visual +distraction. +<dl> +<dt><tt><i>preview-latex</i></tt><dd>Browse <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/preview-latex/">support/preview-latex/</a> +<dt><tt><i>texmacs</i></tt><dd>Browse <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/systems/unix/TeXmacs/">systems/unix/TeXmacs/</a> +</dl> +<p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=WYGexpts">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=WYGexpts</a> +</body> |