Recommended build system for latex? [closed]

Answer 1

I've been using the latex-makefile for a while. Its pretty good if you're trying to use an edit-compile-preview cycle:

• Takes almost zero configuration.
• Builds .ps or .pdf.
• Handles all the necessary iteration. I literally have to write nothing else.
• Quite robust, but occasionally the errors and warnings get mangled.
• It doesn't kill the old pdf until the new one is built.
• It builds other files, like generating eps from gnuplot. I havent found this hugely useful though.
• The author is very quick to respond to feature requests.

• I can replicate the advantages of latexmk fairly easily with:

  while [ 1 ]; do /usr/bin/make; done
  

Some downsides:

• It only allows pdf generation via dvi -> ps -> pdf, instead of directly via pdftex.
• Its error output isnt the same as the standard latex one, so vim isnt moving to the correct line.
• It doesnt always recompile on changes in bibtex and other non-tex sources.
• If I remove a file, it doesn't remove the dependency without a make clean.

Answer 2

Ok, so this question is a bit old, but it came up when I googled "latex build system" so I thought I'd add my two cents. I tried the Makefile based solutions, but found the output a bit verbose and unwieldy. I figured someone might have built a scons extension for latex, but was pleasantly surprised to find that scons already natively supports latex! All you need to do is create a SConsctruct file like this:

env = Environment()  
env.PDF(target="report.pdf", source="report.tex")

To build just run scons report.pdf. Scons will automatically build .tex files included by report.tex, handle bibliographies and perform repeated builds in order to resolve all references - simple!

You can create DVI and PS files in the same way. For more info on these builders check out http://www.scons.org/doc/2.0.1/HTML/scons-user/a8524.html .

For more info on scons (a make replacement), see http://www.scons.org/

Answer 3

After considering all these options for some time, I have settled with the following solution.

• Set vim to write continuously as I type.
• Run a script in the background to build continuously, refreshing the pdf as it goes. latexmk is nearly good enough, except that it builds in place, which gets reloaded at a bad time in okular (my viewer).

The script is available at https://github.com/pbiggar/texbuild.

Use rubber-info to get the errors and warnings from the log file. The script above saves the log file in t.log. In vim:

autocmd FileType tex set makeprg=rubber-info\ t.log
autocmd FileType tex set errorformat=%f:%l:\ %m

Answer 4

"Better" is a very relative term... what else do you want to do? It seems like this makefile handles quite a bit, and it makes me wish I was running a *nix at work instead of windows... if there are more things you need to handle with the makefile, why not add them in?

To make it "better" you would need to provide more details on what exactly you're doing.

For instance, you could have it parse the .log file with grep, search for errors or warnings, dump them into another file, then open the new file so you can read through the errors.

It all depends on what you want to do...

Answer 5

Have a look at TeXMaker. :-)

features (from wiki):

• In-line spell check.
• A unicode editor to write LaTeX source files (syntax highlighting, undo-redo, search-replace, spell checker...)
• LaTeX tags and mathematical symbols can be entered with a mouse
• Document and section templates
• LaTeX-related programs can be launched
• BibTeX database management
• An outline or "structure view"
• Logfiles during LaTeX compilation and the ability to "step through" source errors that are discovered by the compiler
• An integrated LaTeX to HTML conversion tool

features (from me):

• useful wizards for inserting tables, citation, referencing
• bidirectional support
• useful keyboard shortcuts
• Auto Complete words (specially is useful with referencing)
• define your own instructions

Answer 6

I use Eclipse with the TexEcplise add-on for editing my TeX-files. It has syntax highlight for LaTeX. When you ask a preview of a non-altered and already compiled tex file, it open the file in the viewer. When the tex file was altered, then it compiles the tex file prior to viewing it. It does the necessary iterations, but only if needed.

Another advantage is that all errors and warnings are summarised in a box and they are highlighted in the tex file! This is a screenshot from the TexEclipse homepage.