Top Front End Editors for LaTeX on Windows | User Recommendations"

[James R]

As the title says...

For those of you who use LaTeX, especially on Windows, which editor/front end do you use? Or, if you know of several, which one do you consider to be best?

 

[Hurkyl]

TeXnic center is neat, on windows. I'm content with xemacs and xdvi on a *nix environment.

 

[chroot]

If you're concerned about entering math into your LaTeX document, I strongly recommend MathType.

- Warren

 

[graphic7]

Typically, I use a port of XEmacs for Win32 whenever I use Windows, or on UNIX/BSD/Linux, I either use some sort of 'vi' (vi or nvi, preferred, but in dire circumstances, vim).

I usually don't bother to generate .dvi output. I just use 'pdflatex' to generate a .pdf (as I probably would've used dvi2ps and ps2pdf, anyways), so when possible I just use 'acroread' or 'xpdf', which uses Ghostscript as a back-end.

 

[Triss]

emacs is my favorite, almost set up like here http://www.math.aau.dk/~dethlef/Tips/

 

[ComputerGeek]

If you're concerned about entering math into your LaTeX document, I strongly recommend MathType.

- Warren

bleh... just get a reference and use the inline math environment.. ti takes a week to get use to and then your on your way.

 

[ComputerGeek]

I agree that Texnicenter is the best IDE for Latex on windows... it is easy to compile the documents, highlights the keywords, etc. and all the documentation that you would search for on the web is already there (literally, the exact same documents)

remember though to install MikTeX is you have not already... none of these environments will work without that installed :-)

 

[chroot]

ComputerGeek,

I know LaTeX. I built the LaTeX system into this forum I can still enter equations in MathType an order of magnitude faster, and with less error, than typing the LaTeX commands manually. When writing complex equations manually, I often find myself fighting brace-balancing problems, and I simply have better things to do.

- Warren

 

[ComputerGeek]

ComputerGeek,

I know LaTeX. I built the LaTeX system into this forum I can still enter equations in MathType an order of magnitude faster, and with less error, than typing the LaTeX commands manually. When writing complex equations manually, I often find myself fighting brace-balancing problems, and I simply have better things to do.

- Warren

I did not mean to insinuate that you were clueless, just that when writing a paper, using the math environment is less disruptive to the writing process than having to open up a separate program to create a mathematical formula.

Different strokes I guess.

 

[chroot]

I did not mean to insinuate that you were clueless, just that when writing a paper, using the math environment is less disruptive to the writing process than having to open up a separate program to create a mathematical formula.

alt-tab, type, copy, alt-tab, paste. I don't find it disruptive. I do, however, find spending three minutes trying to figure out which brace I forgot to close, or looking up (again) how to put slashes through symbols, rather disruptive.

Different strokes I guess.

I guess. You're the one who had to comment on what was only a recommendation of a product I enjoy using, rather than just letting me continue to enjoy using it.

- Warren

 

[ComputerGeek]

alt-tab, type, copy, alt-tab, paste. I don't find it disruptive. I do, however, find spending three minutes trying to figure out which brace I forgot to close, or looking up (again) how to put slashes through symbols, rather disruptive.
- Warren

I don't seem to have that problem. Sorry if I struck a nerve.

 

[James R]

I have been using WinEdt, which works pretty well, but looking at the TeXNicCenter home page, it looks like it has some good features. I'll give it a try.

Thanks for the help.

 

[George Jones]

I use Scientific WorkPlace, which has a fairly hefty price-tag.

I do, however, find spending three minutes trying to figure out which brace I forgot to close, or looking up (again) how to put slashes through symbols, rather disruptive.

I couldn't agree more!

For me there is also another issue. When I write non-technical prose that contains no mathematics, I compose at the keyboard without putting pen to paper. As much as possible, I like to do the same when I write tecnhnical stuff that contains lots of mathematics.

Thisn is impossible when using straight LateX. When I see a complicated mathematical expression in LaTex, I can't, in my mind, visualize the expression both as a whole and as parts, which I need to be able to do in order to manipulate and massage parts as the expression in my head.

Scientific Workplace provides just the type of environment I need - nice visual representation of the mathematics, plotting facilities, and a built-in algebraic system (in my old version, an extensive subset of Maple) that accepts, without ever moving out of the document window, the visual mathematics as input (as opposed to ASCII).

I use this system both not only to wite the final product, but also as an electronic scratchpad to develop the mathematics on the fly.

I have attached a screenshot of work that I posted on the Special & General Relativity forum. This is not after compiling - this is how it appeared as I inputted it in. Of course, compilation is necessary to produce LaTeX output.

Regards,
George

 

[ComputerGeek]

Cripes... why not just use maple then?