On 8/14/06, Angus Leeming <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Michael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> As a broader question, is there a way to utilize the Latex Instant
Preview
> feature from outside of the LyX?
Hi, Michael. Would it be fair to summarize your requirements as:
* Type an equation in LaTeX syntax
* Hit return to send it over the wire to your colleague
* Have the just received LaTeX snippet converted into a .png file on your
colleague's machine for display as an image if conversion was successful,
otherwise as your LaTeX text snippet.
?
> I am wondering if I can copy the images from the instant equation
preview
> buffer to OneNote in realtime automatically and programatically.
I dunno anything about OneNote, but if you can flag some text received by
your
colleague with "please try and pass this through the latex.exe compiler
and
dvipng.exe to generate .png files", then the whole process sounds
achievable.
Your colleague's machine would need to:
1. Wrap your LaTeX snippet inside more text to make a complete LaTeX
document
that can be processed by latex.exe. See src/graphics/PreviewLoader.C:
491 of << "\\batchmode\n";
492 dumpPreamble(of);
493 of << "\n\\begin{document}\n";
494 dumpData(of, inprogress.snippets);
495 of << "\n\\end{document}\n";
496 of.close();
2. Send this complete LaTeX document to a script, something like
lib/scripts/lyxpreview2bitmap.py
3. Wait for this script to complete and load the image file into OneNote.
Regards,
Angus
Angus,
Very nice, thanks a lot for the information!
I still have questions:
1. How to send this complete Latex document to a script?
2. Does this generated preview image have a reasonably good width and
height, I am guessing that as a compiled document, it might have a large
white margin? Or it is precisely a snippet of an equation?
3. The LyX's inset math box (the half-WYSIWYG one before the instant
preview) is still very good interface, is there a way to single it out?
The workflow can be: in OneNote, I place the cursor at a certain point, then
hit a button, then a LyX embedded window gets launched so I can use the
inset math box to write equations, and the content of the inset math box
will be compiled in real time as you've described, and then the image will
be copied and pasted into the current drawing region in OneNote.
The underlying communication will be done by OneNote, since it is an
excellent collaboration tool; it always allows hand-drawing and
scribbling... which is great for brain-storming...
any more thoughts?
Thanks a lot!
