[OS X TeX] SyncTeX (or TeXShop/TeXworks) suggestion (if the feature is not already there…)

[roberto avanzi]

Il giorno 24/giu/2013, alle ore 22:38, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com> ha scritto:

> Howdy,
> 
> Another solution... take it for what it's worth...
> 
> Let's say the file structure of the final document is to have a rootfile.tex, which has all the \includes, etc., in a folder and the different `chapter' files, chapterX.tex, in a sub-directory called `chapters'. Then each chapter file has the line
> 
> % !TEX root = ../rootfile.tex
> 
> and all works properly.
> 
> The folks who supply the chapter files use the SAME STRUCTURE but customize the rootfile.tex to only process their chapter; either with \includeonly or their personal the rootfile.tex.

Well, the ideal situation would to use NO changes.

One reason is that one author may have to write several sections. 

Moreover, the root file, as any other file, is on a versioning system that locks unchecked files, so this solution may involve several people working with competing versions of the root file at once.

Finally, these users are used to Word, where you can edit individual sections in individual files where there is no front matter, indexes, etc - then an  editor merges them. You don't want anything but the section in the compiled sub files so that would require more changes...

So, yes - a decent solution would be a checkbox to ignore the !TeX root command in the file editor or just modify that one - less file changes, more expected appearance.

I want to stress that this may seem a corner case for (La)TeX, but it is a common way to assemble composite reports in the industry world. Word has - on paper - full support for this, but it is buggy and has awful typography, and if authors start changing line spacing or font sizes (even by accident, or because of Word's awkward interface, or as a result of its bugs) then the report editor has to go through the document to check formatting. LaTeX has unique strengths here. And with elite research groups in industry hiring folks from academia, in some cases there's enough critical mass to make a convincing case for the TeX typesetting system ;-)

 Roberto

> Good Luck,
> 
> Herb Schulz
> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
> 
> 
> 
> 
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