Which is the best way to post heavy LaTeX messages?

[mcastillo356]

Hi PF

I'm about to post, and I want to draft it not making use of Preview or Edit tools. I'm thinking about the notepad, or is there another way? I think I was told about help from PF, but can't seem to find the thread where I read it.

Thanks

 

[Eclair_de_XII]

You could always write your message into MS Notepad and typeset the results using pdflatex or something to that effect.

 

[Mark44]

I use LaTeX a lot here at PF in replies to math questions, but these replies usually aren't very long. I always check any but the shortest LaTeX scripts using the Preview button, and fix any mistakes before I post my reply.
Speaking only for myself, I don't use any special LaTeX editors -- just Windows Notepad -- but that's just me.

 

[berkeman]

Paging @ergospherical

 

[Eclair_de_XII]

One thing to note is that (La)TeX uses single-dollar signs instead of double-pound signs in order to switch to in-line math-mode. In case you are using either of these engines to typeset your messages, you will want to keep this in mind.

You will probably need to find-replace every non-escaped single-dollar sign with a double-pound sign every time you want to post the final draft of your message. The following code may help circumvent this hasslesome task.

(Macro definitions, but I'm not sure if this site accepts user-defined macros.)

\newif\ifMathMode
\def\mathShift{\ifMathMode\MathModefalse\else \MathModetrue $\fi}
\catcode`\#=13
\def#{\mathShift}

(Body of message here)

\catcode`\#=6

(End of post)

 

[ergospherical]

Paging @ergospherical

I use Overleaf to typeset all of my supervision work and reports. You can configure it to automatically compile and display a preview of the document whenever you make an edit, the error logs are easy to understand and you can also have more than one author work on the same document. It's also what my uni's $\TeX$ society uses!