L A T E X crash course

Transcription

1 L A T E X crash (for PhDs) 1 1 Research group on Computational Geo-Ecology Instituut voor Biodiversiteit en Ecosysteem Dynamica Universiteit van Amsterdam June 26, 2010

2 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

3 assumptions/facts I am not really familiar with T E X programming (I never developed any L A T E X package). L A T E X has a steep learning curve. I also use (e.g. to write short documents). L A T E X comes (as any GNU) without any warranty.

4 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

5 The programme Wednesday 14 Oct 16:00-17:30 Introduction to T E X (philosophy, history). Installation of software and first steps. Common L A T E X commands. Thursday 15 Oct 14:00-17:30 (2 blocks) Generate your first document with L A T E X. Writing a thesis with L A T E X. Preparing slides with Beamer (UvA template). Export to HTML (Google Earth).

6 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

7 Software You should have installed these already! MikT E X v2.8 (L A T E X engine); WinEdt v5.6 (T E X editor); a number of WinEdt plugins: JabRef references editor; BibT E X menu WinEdt menu for references; MathType Equation editor; R-Sweave full WinEdt R integration; Optional: Scientific Word the commercial programme for producing L A T E X documents under Windows; word2tex a shareware programme that converts MS WORD documents to L A T E X.

8 The programme I am not really familiar with T E X programming (I never developed any L A T E X package). L A T E X has a steep learning curve. I also use (e.g. to write short documents). L A T E X comes (as any GNU) without any warranty.

9 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

10 T E X history In 1978, Donald Knuth (one of the most famous and well respected computer scientists) embarked on a project to create a typesetting system, called T E X (pronounced tech ), after being disappointed with the quality of his acclaimed The Art of Programming series. Around 10 years later, he froze the language after originally anticipating spending a single year!; In the mid-80s Leslie Lamport created a set of macros that abstracted away many of the complexities (this allowed for a simpler approach for creating documents, where content and style were separate). This extension became L A T E X (pronounced lay-tech ); MiKT E X (pronounced mick-tech ) is an up-to-date implementation of T E X and related programs for Windows;

11 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

12 What is L A T E X? essentially a markup language; analogous to HTML with CSS; programming environment with many contributed packages and styles; renders the content into a document (PDF); it s not a code based system!

13 Who is it for? Anybody writing anything maths related will not find a richer and better quality system. You plan to write research articles, books (thesis) and make professional and stable overheads; If you are in academia, you really ought to be using it! Even WikiPedia use L A T E X for rendering any formulas that appear on their site. See also: L A T E X isn t for everyone but it could be for you by Andy Roberts.

14 Why T E X?... portability, lightness, security; it is easier than XML (and has less bugs); it is open source / free! it is professional ( is not a press software!); You can get L A T E X to do just about anything you can think of! (it s just a question of time / effort)

15 T E X saves time focus on content, let L A T E X bother about the layout; the software takes care of the actual typesetting, structuring, numbering, referencing and cross-referencing, indexing and page formatting; compile documents in PDF (export to HTML, RTF); hyphenation, typesetting, fine-tuned control;

16 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

17 L A T E X versus WYSIWYG world; XML; nonstandard styles; not-suited for large (collaborative) documents; compatibility problems ( 97, 2000, XP, 2003, 2007); L A T E X code world; T E X language; standard styles; perfect for large collaborative documents; the syntax staid the same ever since the beginning!...and the winner is...

18 does in fact have a similar Styles feature (but people don t often know it exists). Microsoft has a software to prepare documents for press Microsoft Office Publisher, but even this can not be compared with e.g. Adobe InDesign (do you have money to buy all this software?)

19 T E X versus Andy Roberts Laws on Word: 1 Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the importance of a document. 2 Likelihood of a crash is inversely proportional to the time left before its deadline. 3 Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the duration since you last saved. 4 Likelihood of you throwing your computer out of the window is directly proportional to the number of times Clippy pops up. 5 That s enough laws for now... See also: L A T E X vs.

20 Outline 1 2 What is L A T E X? 3 L A T E X versus

21 Lamport, L., L A T E X: A Document Preparation System. Addison-Wesley, 291 p. Oetiker, T The (Not So) Short Introduction to L A T E X2e. self-published, 155 p. L A T E X on wikibooks.

22 Layout galleries Appendix The T E X showcase; Page and chapter headings by Vincent Zoonekynd; L A T E X font catalogue; Copernicus publications (HESS);

23 L A T E X to HTML/KML Appendix convert your L A T E X document to HTML (install TtH); install some KML editor (or use WinEdt); Put the slides as HTML in the description field; to get some idea what you can do with KML, look at the KML interactive sampler and/or Google Earth Outreach; You can also convert from L A T E X document to Wiki (e.g. using this Python script);