Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Collaborative LaTeX Editor With Preview In Your Web Browser

Posted by timothy on from the but-office-365-is-there-for-you dept.

Celarent Darii writes "Slashdot readers have undoubtedly heard of Google Docs and the many other online word processing solutions that run in the browser. However, as a long-time user of TeX and LaTeX, these solutions are not my favorite way of doing things. Wouldn't it be nice to TeX something in your browser? Well, look no further, there is now an online collaborative LaTeX editor with integrated rapid preview. Some fantastic features: quasi-instant preview, automatic versioning of source, easy collaboration and you can even upload files and pictures. Download your project later when you get home. Are you a TeX guru with some masterpieces? Might I suggest uploading them? For the beginner: you can start here."

6 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Awesome by cryptizard · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most exciting thing I've seen all day! Right now I use a subversion repository to collaborate with my coauthors, but my advisor isn't very technical and can't seem to figure it out half the time. This is going to be much easier.

    1. Re:Awesome by JohnHammersley · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Most exciting thing I've seen all day! Right now I use a subversion repository to collaborate with my coauthors, but my advisor isn't very technical and can't seem to figure it out half the time. This is going to be much easier.

      Thanks - we've designed writeLaTeX to make it easier to collaborate especially with users who are new to LaTeX or used to WYSIWYG editors. (I'm one of the developers of writeLaTeX and have just returned from my valentine meal out to find us on slashdot!!) Hope the site has been performing ok during the spike in traffic, and if you've any questions just let me know or contact us through the site. Any and all feedback appreciated! John

  2. Latex outside academia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I loved using Latex when I was in school. I used it not only for dissertations, but also for assignments. But I can't find any use for it outside academia. At least not at my current job. Does anyone have any stories where they use Latex outside a university?

    1. Re:Latex outside academia by WillAdams · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I work in publishing, so use it quite a bit for any .pdf manipulation which isn't suited to pdftk, and which justifies it (as opposed to using Enfocus PitStop). Examples:

        - in-house ad design system for HS ads in phone books
        - batch processing ads to add a yellow or white background, or to scale them, sometimes asymmetrically
        - batch print graphics w/ filenames --- one instance of that was a several thousand page government publication
        - print processed graphics side-by-side w/ the original to make proofreading easier (while I worked up an AppleScript which would page forward in both .pdfs displayed in Adobe Acrobat w/ a single click people never used it)
        - unreleased system for creating galley versions of magazine / journal articles when the source text was in Typo3
        - custom typesetting system for custom story books, since taken off-line

      I also use it for my own design and typesetting:

        - the freely distributed .pdf version of Mike Brotherton's Star Dragon: http://www.mikebrotherton.com/2005/04/20/new-star-dragon-pdf/ (this design made it into the Memoir documentclass along w/ some other things I contributed)
        - some entries in the TeX Showcase: http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/onetype.pdf and http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/peace_on_earth.pdf
        - books which I typeset and print so as to bind them by hand: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf

      William

      --
      Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  3. Re:Not just this one. by Celarent+Darii · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is the submitter the owner of this particular version?

    I wish I were. Nope, just a fan - sorry for the over enthusiasm.

    Some other people also gave me by message these sites: http://www.scribtex.com/ as well as this one emulating Google docs: http://docs.latexlab.org/

    Didn't know that all these services were available. Only found this by accident a few days ago and found it really useful, hence the story submission.

  4. Re:Internet Age by frisket · · Score: 3, Interesting

    When I was in college and enamored with all things OSS I tried really hard to get into LaTeX. But it seems to me that as time progresses and our method of interacting with our computers via GUIs is more entrenched that it's kind of a dying notion. Of course, there are people who still use it (and will undoubtedly loudly criticize this post), but I would be willing to wager that it's dwindling.

    Certainly not in my experience. On the contrary, what I see of LaTeX is growing. A lot of people who encountered it in college were poorly taught, poorly advised, and were given very poor documentation, and they assumed it was just for math/phys/eng geeks. But the quality of doc has improved massively, and the biggest growth area now is the Humanities, who have outgrown Word and are looking for something more controllable.