[OS X TeX] TeXPad on iOS issues

[Warren Nagourney]

Thank for the response. I am not interested in typesetting in the cloud — some of my work will be done without an internet connection. I tried both TeXpad and TeX Writer. While the latter is very bare bones, the typesetting engine is 2-3 times as fast as the one in TeXpad. It is also much more reliable and bug free. It takes about 1 second to typeset my 40 page document on my iPad using TeX Writer.

I do like the two pane approach that TeXpad offers — one can edit on one pane and the typeset output will automatically update in the output pane. It also syncs from the pdf pane to the source pane but not the other way. 

TeXpad has numerous annoying problems in addition to the freezes (which are much less of a problem since I reinstalled the app). On the iPhone, rotating the phone causes the output to switch to a completely different place and typesetting doesn’t seen to preserve the last viewed place - it seems to always revert to the beginning. I also have syncing problems with dropbox — using two different iOS devices on the same files can cause my work to be lost (this might be my fault; perhaps I am doing something wrong). 

On the other hand, the editor in TeX Writer is a bit weird - they use an unusual selection system and I find it impossible to select a single word using it. Also, they don’t seem to set a master file for typesetting with multiple source files - after editing a file, one needs to return to the master file to typeset. 

Both apps seem to have potential. Again, perhaps I need to become more proficient in using them.

Warren N

> On Oct 17, 2017, at 10:15 AM, Stephen Lienhard <stephenl at 2bike4.com> wrote:
> 
> I use the latest generation 12.9 iPad Pro with TexPad.  Near instant compilation times with 50+ page documents.  Same for previous generation 12.9.  Mostly everyone I know that uses the 12.9 with TexPad and an external or smart keyboard are very happy with compile times.
> 
> Did you try the typesetting in the cloud option?  Also, I heard they are working on a new update which will typeset on the fly in a way that only updates what you just typed.  Maybe you can ask to be a beta tester to see if that improves your situation.
> 
> --
> Stephen
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On Oct 6, 2017, at 9:39 PM, Warren Nagourney <wna at u.washington.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> I have been using TeXPad on an iPad Air 2 and am having some issues. I am not sure many people on the list have used TeXPad, but with the increasing power of iPad CPUs and the extreme portability of the iPad, I have wanted to move my desktop publishing to this platform (especially with iOS 11, which makes productivity in iOS much easier). So far, I am not very happy with the results.
>> 
>> First, TeXPad is very slow - about 10 times slower than a MacBook which benchmarks less than twice as fast as the iPad. Second, there are frequent hangs of up to 20 seconds when typesetting a modest size document (a 40 page chapter of my recent book).I have tried it with the network off (WIFI off) to remove slow network speeds as a possible cause.  Finally, the editor seems to have a fairly steep learning curve.
>> 
>> Has anyone had similar issues? Although iOS 11 is a big step up for iPad productivity, I am still not sure that it is a good platform for desktop publishing in math and science. I hope that this improves in the near future.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> Warren Nagourney
>> 
>> ps. I appreciate that this is a Mac centric site, but when I asked a similar question a few years ago, the topic of iOS apps was considered acceptable.
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> 
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