[OS X TeX] Re: Some thoughts about editors

[Alain Schremmer]

On Sep 24, 2007, at 5:01 PM, Herbert Schulz wrote:

>
> On Sep 24, 2007, at 3:28 PM, François Chaplais wrote:
>
>>
>> Le 24 sept. 07, à 19:23, Alain Schremmer a écrit :
>>
>>>
>>> On Sep 23, 2007, at 8:11 AM, John Burt wrote:
>>>
>>>> Alphatk has folding also, and good TeX syntax coloring, and many  
>>>> other features.
>>>
>>> Yes, but can it do my espresso?
>>>
>>> A bit more seriously: Is there somewhere a detailed comparison of  
>>> Alpha with TeXShop?
>>>
>>> In particular, I would like to know:
>>>
>>> 	1. How easy it is to install and configure compared with TeXShop  
>>> via i-Installer,
>>
>> It is a standard Mac application, no i-installer is required. Go to
>> http://alphatcl.sourceforge.net/wiki/
>> download the .dmg file that fits your system, open it to mount the  
>> image file, and drag the Alpha folder to the location of your  
>> choice. That's it.
>>
>
> Howdy,
>
> You don't need i-Installer to install TeXShop. Download the .dmg  
> file from <http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html>, open  
> that and drag and drop.

Absolutely. My mistake.
> Of course, in either case you still need a TeX distribution.

Indeed, and this is of course what I i-installed. But once I had  
TeXShop and the TeX distribution, everything worked without me having  
to do a thing. What would be the case with Alpha?

>> One feature I like is the following: if you invoke the macro for  
>> "fraction", what you get is
>> \frac{|}{•}•    with the insertion point inside the first pair of  
>> braces.
>> You type the numerator (dx here), hit the tab key and the  
>> insertion point is now at the next bullet character:
>> \frac{dx}{|}•
>> typing "dt" and hitting tab inserts dt between the braces and  
>> brings you to the next "tab stop", i.e. bullet character, and you get
>> \frac{dx}{dt}| with the insertion point outside the braces.
>> Of course this is recursive, i.e. it handles nested environments.
>> Automatic indentation is supported.
>> Another feature is filesets: if your source includes several files  
>> chapter in a book, for instance), you can define a fileset to do,  
>> for instance, a search and replace on all elements of the  
>> filesets. This is very handy if you want to change the label of an  
>> equation and consequently all the \ref{}. Regular expressions are  
>> supported. This also applies to projects in other languages.
>> Well, I will stop here.
>> Best regards,
>> 	Francois
>>
>> Francois Chaplais
>> 35 rue Saint-Honore
>> 77305 Fontainebleau Cedex
>> France
>
> Using Command Completion in TeXShop is similar: with the Command  
> Completion file and macros (get CommandCompletion.zip from <http:// 
> homepage.mac.com/herbs2/>) I write
>
> \fr
>
> and then press the Esc key to get
>
> \frac{|}{•}
>
> where | is the insertion point (cursor). Then I use Ctl-Cmd-F and  
> jump to the • (called a Mark or Place Holder). I could add another  
> • at the end but since that's a single } to jump over it's just as  
> easy to use the ->, etc.


I am not too much into Command Completion so that definitely would  
not be worth the switch but it looks like I should have dared to try  
Schulz's package. Now I think I will.

On the other hand, filesets seems good as I often have to change  
"word1" for "word2" throughout the many chapters of the magnum opus.

However, I am still wondering if folding—the one thing I miss from MS  
Word— is worth switching. (No matter what, a switch will consume time.)

So, maybe, if Koch were to …

Grateful regards to all
--schremmer
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