mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Massimiliano Gubinelli <address@hidden>]

Dear all,

 following the clear interest expressed on the list about the possibility of a stack exchange section, I’ve just proposed one named “TeXmacs”

You can access it with the following link:

https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/121978/texmacs?referrer=kx6OG2kzsntvCBnp7y8WZQ2

I’m new to the process, so not very much sure how to go on. It is currently in a “staging” area and will be scrutinised for activity, so I would suggest we try to be active (with questions and answers) to see if it a viable solution to the persistence of the user’s knowledge about the program.

Best

Massimiliano Gubinelli

On 2. Apr 2019, at 20:08, Giovanni Piredda <address@hidden> wrote:

I do not know the details on how to do all of these things (I figured out how to add files to the main document, see below), but they are nice questions for the StackExchange :-)

In my opinion there is enough interest to open a StackExchange section, maybe one of the developers should open it, to make it official. But if they wish, one of the users can do it as well.

For your question:

you have to set the main document to be "master"

- In the menus: Tools -> Project -> Use as master

Then you attach your document to the master using "Attach master" in the same Tools-> Project menu

(I am guessing the names of the menus as I have the German menus :-))

I have just a little bit of experience with this (I did a document with two subdocuments of a few pages each) so I do not know how well it works with large documents.

Giovanni

Am 02.04.2019 um 19:44 schrieb address@hidden:

I would like a get a simple tutorial how to write a book (few pages just for example)

how to add files in the main book

I have a lot of examples and I don't know how to include them inside each other.

Any guidance ?

Henri

Le 02/04/2019 à 17:48, Youjun Hu a écrit :

Hi all,

I also support using more social-network styles to build TeXmacs community, which now seems to be small and silent in most time.

TeXmacs is an excellent program and should be more visible.

Here is a mindmap for using TeXmacs which I found useful and would like to share:

https://www.mindomo.com/mindmap/texmacs-b207992c90c046bdbe4053cbdf88b5d5

As a 12-years TeXmacs user, I though I have used TeXmacs in the most efficient way that TeXmacs can provide, but it turns out that there are still some more efficient ways that Texmacs provides. As an example, recently I found Ctrl-Backspace can delete the environment near the cursor, which is very handy, e.g., for restoring a colored/italic/bold font to default.

Youjun Hu

On Mon, Apr 1, 2019 at 12:27 PM Nicola Mingotti <address@hidden> wrote:

I fully support StackExchange.
It would be easier to find recurrent question/answer.

bye
n.

On 3/31/19 4:47 AM, Alkis Akritas wrote:

Great idea!

Alkis

Sent from my iPad

On 31 Mar 2019, at 13:37, Alvaro Tejero Cantero <address@hidden> wrote:

I also support it and will contribute.

A good starting point would be for us to fish recurring questions from the mailing list and answering them there.

Lets do it!

Álvaro.

On Sun, 31 Mar 2019 at 12:29, Basile Audoly <address@hidden> wrote:

Dear Giovanni,

using stackexchange is a great idea. I am in.

Basile

Le 28 mars 2019 à 21:23, Giovanni Piredda <address@hidden> a écrit :

Dear Max,

the idea of a stackexchange section, I think, is good, and I am willing to participate into starting it (it may have drawbacks, but it is something practical that can help, and I think this outweighs the drawbacks). I have looked at the FAQ (https://area51.stackexchange.com/faq) and it looks doable - it would be important to hear from other users and the other developers, as it will require for a while consistent participation (then it may go on by itself).

I have at least another comment on the topic "stackexchange section" but I would like to hear other opinions first.

Giovanni

Am 28.03.2019 um 15:33 schrieb Massimiliano Gubinelli:

Dear Giovanni,

 the points you make below are quite sensible. Inclusion in major Linux distribution is blocked by the current impossibility to switch to Guile 2, this require nontrivial developer work which so far has not been undertaken. Some low level parts of TeXmacs scheme code have to be rewritten and we would very much appreciate help from people versed in Guile 2.

For the rest I think that a better and more user friendly way to share knowledge about TeXmacs would be to have our own stackexchange section. In my experience this is the place where I find very useful and up to date LaTeX informations (how to do something, which are the packages more appropriate to some task, etc…).

It would allow to create a shared knowledgebase which is better structured and more reliable than digging the mail archives (IMHO)

Max

 

On 26. Mar 2019, at 22:08, Giovanni Piredda <address@hidden> wrote:

I find TeXmacs a wonderful program.

It is quite possible that its success will be determined by how many users and developers it will be able to attract (someone I have been discussing with told it to me, and I think it is a sensible statement). For this reason, I think the ideas I am going to list here are worth discussing, as they may help attracting users and developers; maybe some of them have already been considered and rejected, or considered and will be implemented - I do not know. They are important to me because I would like to invest my energies in writing using TeXmacs with the idea in mind that I will be able to edit them in the future with a new version of TeXmacs. Of course I know that whatever I write, I will be able to use in the future too if I save a copy, say, in LaTeX; having the idea that it will continue working in TeXmacs itself is an additional help for the confidence.

Here they are. With of course the necessary IMHO in front of everything.

- TeXmacs should be re-inserted in the repositories of all major Linux distributions. I know that it is not in Ubuntu, and I suspect that this is because it is based on Guile 1.8. Because of this, I suspect too that this is already considered and it will be done :-) But I list it here all the same. Being able to install things with a click makes it easy to try things out and so on.

- The archives of the mailing list would need, IMHO, a slightly more wieldy search interface. I tried it and it works nicely, but there is something a bit off with it. Perhaps it is just the matter of tuning the default appearance of some elements: for example, a larger panel with larger font size for the search, the menu for selecting the year range a bit easier to use; the results presented in pages and with just the titles and the first few words (so that they are easier to evaluate at a glance). And maybe the possibility of ordering the results by "relevance" (with a good definition of "relevance") could also be nice - of course this could mean using a different search engine.

-- Yet for what regards the archives of the mailing list, the list of messages could appear immediately, without pressing the button "I'm not a spammer", which as far as I can see has no function; yet again with different defaults (larger font, messages should maybe be on the foreground rather than the grid with years and months)

- A standard way for users to exchange style files and macros would be helpful. Now of course everyone is free to post their macros in the mailing list. What would help, in my opinion, is an organized place where one can go and look for macros. Like CTAN for LaTeX. If this is at the moment too expensive to organize, a temporary solution could be thought of. Maybe through GitHub (where there are the TeXmacs repositories) or through some feature of the mailing list. This seems to me very, very helpful, the more helpful the more it is working without supervision - as I think it could have an avalanche effect. To convince oneself, one can think about the LaTeX packages that he likes and uses, and the ones he does not use but finds attractive too ... (for examples of both kinds in my case: booktabs, siunitx, chemfig, mhchem - I had a look at it just now - tikz, pgfplots, fancyhdr, geometry, listings, cleveref)

- Screenshots of the current TeXmacs version appearing in a prominent place on the website. I think they help convincing people to try the program. The program itself does the rest of the convincing.

- Perhaps making it clear that, since one is able to save one's work in LaTeX, whatever one writes will be available to them in the future too (as long as LaTeX is still there, and we can be confident about that I think); so the time spent writing in TeXmacs is well invested for sure: one has *now* the ease and comfort of use of TeXmacs and the stability of LaTeX.

Ok, I am pretty aware that I have just arrived here. If it helps, it helps, if not ... not :-)