MicroEMACS LaTeX Interface. M.F. Reid, Mon Dec 21 18:20:26 1992 This is an attempt at a MicroEMACS interface for preparing LaTeX documents under MicroSoft Windows (mewin). It consists of several ".CMD" files in the mewin directory, and a number of auxiliary files in the latex subdirectory. Please tell me about any inaccuracies in the macros or the documents. The details of the implementation can be easily adjusted if you have some good suggestions. Note that mewin itself has standard Windows Help. The first section of this file is: 0. TeX-helpful modifications to mewin. There are Four major headings under the TeX menu item. These will form the last four sections of this file: 1. LaTeX Input. to assist in preparation of LaTeX files 2. BibTeX Input. to assist in preparation of BibTeX files 3. Execute. to run LaTeX processes 4. Debug to locate errors automatically 5. Help. help on LaTeX and this interface 0. TeX-helpful modifications. Some additions and modifications have been made in order to make mewin work reasonably nicely with TeX files, and behave similarly to gnu emacs. Wrap mode and "C Indentation" are automatically used on .tex and .bib files. The "mark" (see mewin help) can be set using the gnu keystroke Control-@, which of course, requires you to press both Control and Shift keys at the same time! The point is left in place after a yank. This is more like gnu emacs. The Insert key toggles over-write mode. Control-Delete deletes blanks up to the next non-blank or end-of-line. Read about the mouse interface in the mewin help. You can cut and paste with just mouse strokes. The characters "\" and "%" are considered to start a paragraph, so that you don't get your equations reformatted (Esc-Q or "Edit>Paragraph>Fill"). A backup-save option on the file menu (M-S keystroke) creates a backup file. If your original file was x.y the backup is x.~y. This is clumsy, as it has to run two DOS shells to do it (del x.~y, rename x.y x.~y). An "Edit>Date" item is added, which puts the current time and date into your file at the currnet point. An "Edit>Region>To Clipboard" item is added, which copies the "region" to the Windows clipboard. A "Spell>Buffer" menu item is added, to run amSpell on your file. This runs in a DOS box. If you want to automatically read in the corrections, you have to wait for the DOS program to finish, then press enter. If you type "n" then enter, the modifications will not be read. Note the goto-matching-fence (Esc-Control-F or under the "Search>Goto" menu), which matches brackets (but not $ signs). Now we discuss the TeX menu items. 1. LaTeX Input. to assist in preparation of LaTeX files This menu item is designed to minimize keystrokes. (i) Templates. Here you use mouse or arrow keys to point the cursor at the item you want (document, letter, REVTeX template, etc) and the appropriate file is included in your file. Pressing enter without moving the cursor, or pressing Control-G, does nothing. Adding extra items would be easy. (ii) Headings. Similar to templates. Creates \section{}, etc. (iii) Environments (also Alt-V) allows you to pick an environment (or press return and type it yourself). The \begin{env} \end{env} pair is created, and you are positioned in between. If the environment is known to have more arguments, space is created for those, e.g. \begin{tabular}{lcr} \end{tabular}. (iv) Miscellaneous. Pick an item and it will be copied into your file. (v) Bracket creates a pair of brackets, e.g. {}, with the point positioned between. You are more likely to use the keystrokes, which are Alt-{, Alt-[, Alt-(, Alt-$ and Alt-". These should be obvious, Alt-" gives you the quote pair, `` ''. Note: for "literal", printing, curly brackets (\{\}), use Control-X then {. For pairs of brackets that size themselves in math mode use Control-X Alt-{, etc. 2. BibTeX Input. to assist in preparation of BibTeX files (i) Templates, which pulls in a file with the necessary entries for each type of citation. i.e. @BOOK{, author="", ... Note that I include an "annote" field. The bibliographystyle aplain will print out this field, so that is a handy place to put comments. (ii) Clean BibItem takes out all the blank items, i.e. lines with a pair of double quotes (""). (iii) Clean BibFile cleans the whole file. (iv) Sort BibFile sorts the entries by citation key. This is rather slow for a large file, but it seems to work. 3. Execute. to run LaTeX processes This allows you to run TeX, LaTeX, previewer, printer driver, BibTeX, and MakeIndex in DOS boxes. The principle is the same for all. You are prompted with a default file name, which stays in force until you clear it using the last sub-menu item (Clear Filename). This allows you to edit several "\include" files and continue to process the "master" file. However, please note that when you invoke these programs, they run in the directory of the file in the current edit window! 4. Debug to locate errors automatically (i) Read Logfile reads in the relevant logfile to allow you to examine the errors. (ii) Find Next Error (key F3) searches for the next LaTeX error, and tries to put you in the erronious file at the right place. Of course, this makes no sense unles it is a LaTeX log file! This may need some improvement. Note that you should kill off any automatically generated files (like .aux, .bbl) after this process. Also, if you didn't save all the files first, you may not be looking at the correct place. 5. Help. help on LaTeX and this interface (i) LaTeX Commands. F1 (ii) Search LaTeX Commands. F2 These items guide you into a file that was created for the VAX help engine, so the interface is a little clumsy. You are first put into a file consisting of the Headings for the Main file. Move to the heading of interest, press enter, and you will be positioned in the Main file. Note that you can use search-forward (Control-S) and search-reverse (Control-R) as well as the arrow and paging commands. Pressing F1 (or using the first sub-menu item) will take you back to where you were in the Headings file. On the other hand, pressing F2 (or using the second sub-menu item) allows you to search for a string in the Headings file. The default search string is whatever the cursor is pointing at, so if you are on a line in the Main file that says: "See also XXX", you can point at XXX, press F2 and go quickly to that section. (iii) Characters. Runs the dvi-viewer on a file containing standard math characters. (iv) Interface. Gives you this file.