[OS X TeX] kind of TeXShop for Windows ?

[Maarten Sneep]

On 31 okt 2004, at 21:44, Siep Kroonenberg wrote:

> Scientific Workplace and LyX are quasi-wysiwyg editors which use
> a subset of LaTeX as fileformat, but don't support general LaTeX.

A bigger problem with Scientific Workplace, is that the latex code it 
produces does not compile of standard LaTeX installations (especially 
the figures are problematic). Lyx on the other hand tries to generate 
LaTeX code that can be used for further editing on other systems (i.e. 
no lock-in).

> The also mentioned TeXnicCenter is often used as a frontend for
> miktex; see http://www.miktex.org for both. These programs are
> free. It used to be necessary to install Ghostscript separately,
> but that may have changed.

Not that I could find on the miktex pages, but I couldn't find a 
listing of
what is installed on their pages.

> MikTeX is well thought of. Opinions on
> TeXnicCenter are more divided. I maintain a network installation
> of this combo for a university department, but don't use it myself
> beyond trying to solve other people's problems, so I don't really
> have an opinion on it.

I think MikTeX is the closest replacement for i-Installer, although 
there are differences: miktex concentrates on TeX & Friends, 
i-Installer is a generic software install & configuration tool. The 
miktex installed binaries allow for on-the-fly installation of missing 
packages (cool feature, but I wouldn't want that). Miktex is probably 
easier on maintenance, as it allows for individual packages to be 
updated, instead of a complete re-install.

I had a student (who was very weary of LaTeX to start with) produce 
decent code in less than a week, without further introduction with 
TeXnicCenter. He still didn't like LaTeX, but TeXnicCenter made is 
tolerable. Their reference insertion system is rather nice (it scans 
all your documents for \label{} statements - it might even attempt to 
detect the context, and offers a user interface when you want to insert 
a \ref{}. It pretty much offers the functionality that BibDesk offers 
for \cite{} commands.

> ProTeXt can be found at http://www.tug.org/ftp/texlive/protext/,
> is based on MikTeX and is to be included in the next TeX Live as a
> separate item.

That is still a very limited description. What does it do? Is it the 
MikTeX package manager, adapted to work on a TeXLive install?

Maarten

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