I want to write my final thesis using LaTeX, what should I do in order to be able to do that through Eclipse on a Mac OS X? If any another good editor exists, feel free to write your opinion on why using this instead of something else.
[Tex/LaTex] start using LaTeX on Mac OS X. Where do I start
installingmac
Related Solutions
Eclipse strikes me as an odd choice of an IDE to use for LaTeX, but I guess it should work, since the steps in producing a LaTeX-generated document are quite similar to those involved in producing a computer program.
The first step is obviously to make sure you have Eclipse and LaTeX themselves installed. Then, if you haven't already done so, you should definitely install the TeXlipse plugin or some equivalent, which provides syntax highlighting and autocompletion, among other things. (Without it, Eclipse would be nothing more than a glorified text editor and in that case you'd be better off just using a plain text editor.) The TeXlipse user manual provides a good description, including screenshots, which I would recommend you follow to the letter, as all the enabled features will most likely be useful to you. Once you've got the plugin installed and configured, just open a project and try compiling it to make sure it works and to get a sense of how the process works.
Eclipse is, of course, not the only IDE you can use for LaTeX; there are specialized LaTeX editors available. My favorite happens to be Kile, which also provides syntax highlighting and autocompletion, as well as a LaTeX symbol list and graphical build commands that are designed specifically for the LaTeX toolchain. It is based on KDE, so if you are using the default graphical environment for Ubuntu (Gnome) you may have to install some - okay, a lot of - extra packages to use Kile, and it's your choice whether that's worth it or not.
- First you need to test if
gnuplot
works. I compiled the source but you can work with a fink or macport version; - Now you can test
gnuplot
in the terminal$ gnuplot
; - Then
gnuplot
must be find in thepath
. A simple solution is to create a link for example in/usr/local/bin/
through the real filegnuplot
but if you know how do you can modifify your path directly (to test the path in the terminal :$ echo $PATH
) - And finally, you need to authorize
TeX
to launch 'gnuplotwith
--shell-escape`in your script for the compilation.
I don't like very much the use of Fink or Macport and I prefer to compile the sources. By default the binary will be inside /usr/local/bin ( I think ..) but it's easy to change. The next method is only to get a version to use with tikz and to get a table. It's more complicate to get a version with all terminals (png, etc.) A good thing is to install Aquaterm !
- Download the sources from : gnuplot sources then put the folder gnuplot-4.4.3 on your desktop
$ cd /Users/.../Desktop/gnuplot-4.4.3
$ ./configure --with-readline=builtin
to avoid a problem with a bad readline on Leopard.$ make
$ sudo make install
- test of gnuplot
$ gnuplot
- make a try with TexShop, this is the easiest way to work with TeX.
Best Answer
MacTeX is your friend! This contains the latest TeXLive distribution.
Personally, I edit using Aquamacs with AUCTeX and friends enabled.