> I use AucTeX, which is a really great, and gigant package to edit latex (+cdlatex)
This is tangential, but have you any quick tips for someone looking to get started with AucTeX? I'm a comfortable Emacser who has started to occasionally think of some document I'd like to do in LaTeX (some maths questions for a student, or an overview of some topic). I've looked at AucTeX once or twice, and ran away thinking, oh, I'll do that some other time.
What is the order of events? Should I make a few really basic LaTeX documents first with a terminal, and then try AucTeX?
I’ve found that the best way to learn a new emacs package is incrementally: for something like Auctex, I initially just enable it for my latex documents and then I configure and learn features as I need them, never learning too much at once. Even with minimal configuration, it gives you some nice things like imenu entries for headings and a menu that surfaces some of the basic latex feature
It's pretty easy, actually.
First, install the plugin, I use this with elpaca:
```
(use-package latex
:ensure nil
:hook
(LaTeX-mode . TeX-fold-mode) ;; I don't use a lot the fold, but it's useful
(LaTeX-mode . turn-on-reftex) ;; For biblatex
(LaTeX-mode . LaTeX-math-mode) ;; For inserting math symbols, altough I think cdlatex is better
(LaTeX-mode . outline-minor-mode) ;; If you use outline to surf throughout the buffer
;; (LaTeX-mode . abbrev-mode) ;; If you use abbrevs
(LaTeX-mode . visual-line-mode) ;; Either this or auto-fill-mode, which will return when you have more than the `fill-column` characters
(LateX-mode . prettify-symbols-mode) ;; Will replace most latex math symbols with unicode
:bind
(:map LaTeX-mode-map
("s-a" . abbrev-mode)
("s-c" . preview-clearout-at-point)
("s-q" . LaTeX-fill-buffer)
)
:custom
(TeX-auto-save t)
(TeX-parse-self t)
(preview-auto-cache-preamble nil) ;; Setting this to t should be faster, but for me it wouldn't work with lualatex
(TeX-command-extra-options "-shell-escape")
;; Use pdf-tools to open PDF files
(TeX-view-program-selection '((output-pdf "PDF Tools"))) ;; I use pdf-tools to read the pdf in emacs
(TeX-save-query nil) ;; Auto save without saving
(TeX-show-compilation nil) ;; Hide the compilation
(TeX-engine 'luatex)
(reftex-plug-into-AUCTeX t) ;; I think this is redundant
(TeX-source-correlate-mode t) ;; To enable synctex (click on the pdf to go to source)
(TeX-source-correlate-start-server t)
:config
(add-to-list 'TeX-command-list '("Make" "make" TeX-run-command nil t))
;; Update PDF buffers after successful LaTeX runs
(add-hook 'TeX-after-compilation-finished-functions #'TeX-revert-document-buffer)
)
(use-package auctex
:ensure (auctex :pre-build (("./autogen.sh")
("./configure" "--without-texmf-dir" "--with-lispdir=.")
("make")))
:demand
:mode (("\\.tex\\'" . LaTeX-mode)
("\\.tex\\.erb\\'" . LaTeX-mode)
("\\.etx\\'" . LaTeX-mode))
:config
(with-eval-after-load 'preview
(dolist (env '("tikzpicture" "circuitikz")) ;; I want to preview tikzpictures and icrcuitikz
(add-to-list 'preview-default-preamble
(concat "\\PreviewEnvironment{" env "}") t))
(add-to-list 'preview-inner-environments "axis") ;; And axis (pgfplots)
(set-face-attribute 'preview-reference-face nil
:foreground "black"
:background "white")))
;; Tikz previews look better with a white background, if you don't use it, it's way cooler to preview latex with a "trasparent" background
```
And then the usage:
Just continue using latex as you are, and then try to incorporate auctex commands.
The most useful being =latex-environment= and =latex-section= + the previews.
So don't write \begin{env}... nor \section{sec}, and instead use C-c C-e and C-c C-s (They seem hard, but they aren't)
For the previews, use C-c C-p ... (there are a lot of options there, using which-key you can see them)
And for compiling use C-c C-c.
I recommend reading https://karthinks.com/software/latex-input-for-impatient-sch... and if you have the time, read bits of the manual
This is tangential, but have you any quick tips for someone looking to get started with AucTeX? I'm a comfortable Emacser who has started to occasionally think of some document I'd like to do in LaTeX (some maths questions for a student, or an overview of some topic). I've looked at AucTeX once or twice, and ran away thinking, oh, I'll do that some other time.
What is the order of events? Should I make a few really basic LaTeX documents first with a terminal, and then try AucTeX?