LaTeX: VIM + Skim

macvim-skim-install.sh is my install script for using MacVim.app with Skim.app.

The agpy wiki page has instructions that are probably more clear; I don't really like the colorscheme / layout of this blog.

You can use synctex to make an editor and viewer work together, but it is far from easy and far harder than it should be. Forward-search is pretty easy, but the latex-suite \ls only works intermittently and is not easily customizable.

I had to do the following:

For VIM->Skim.app (Skim.app is necessary for any of this to work), add these commands to .vimrc:

" Activate skim
map ,v :w<CR>:silent !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -r <C-r>=line('.')<CR> %<.pdf %<CR><CR>
map ,p :w<CR>:silent !pdflatex -synctex=1 --interaction=nonstopmode %:p <CR>:silent !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -r <C-r>=line('.')<CR> %<.pdf %<CR><CR>
map ,m :w<CR>:silent !make <CR>:silent !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -r <C-r>=line('.')<CR> %<.pdf %<CR><CR>
" Reactivate VIM
map ,r :w<CR>:silent !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -r <C-r>=line('.')<CR> %<.pdf %<CR>:silent !osascript -e "tell application \"MacVim\" to activate" <CR><CR>
map ,t :w<CR>:silent !pdflatex -synctex=1 --interaction=nonstopmode %:p <CR>:silent !/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -r <C-r>=line('.')<CR> %<.pdf %<CR>:silent !osascript -e "tell application \"MacVim\" to activate" <CR><CR>

The ,m command will reload the file and put your cursor where the text is. ,t will return VIM to the front afterwards.


Going the other way (reverse-search / inverse-search) was MUCH more challenging. The code that does this is on agpy . Reproduced here for posterity (I hope to update the agpy version to deal with tabs). [A few hours later, I HAVE replaced the code. Below are the old applescript version, then the new, vim-based version



#!/bin/bash

file="$1"
line="$2"

[ "${file:0:1}" == "/" ] || file="${PWD}/$file"

# Use Applescript to activate VIM, find file, and load it
# the 'delay' command is needed to prevent command/control/shift from sticking when this
# is activated (e.g., from Skim, where the command is command-shift-click)
#
# key code 53 is "escape" to escape to command mode in VIM
exec osascript \
-e "delay 0.2" \
-e "tell application \"MacVim\" to activate" \
-e "tell application \"System Events\"" \
-e " tell process \"MacVim\"" \
-e " key code 53 "\
-e " keystroke \":set hidden\" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":if bufexists(bufname('$file'))\" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":exe \\\":buffer \\\" . bufnr(bufname('$file'))\" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":else \" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":echo \\\"Could not load file\\\" \" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":endif\" & return " \
-e " keystroke \":$line\" & return " \
-e " end tell" \
-e "end tell"


New code: download link

#!/bin/bash

# Install directions:
# Put this file somewhere in your path and make it executable
# To set up in Skim, go to Preferences:Sync
# Change Preset: to Custom
# Change Command: to macvim-load-line
# Change Arguments: to "%file" %line

file="$1"
line="$2"
debug="$3"

echo file: $file
echo line: $line
echo debug: $debug

for server in `mvim --serverlist` 
do
    foundfile=`mvim --servername $server --remote-expr "WhichTab('$file')"`
    if [[ $foundfile > 0 ]]
    then
        mvim --servername $server --remote-expr "foreground()" 
        if [[ $debug ]] ; then echo mvim --servername $server --remote-send ":exec \"tabnext $foundfile\" "; fi
        mvim --servername $server --remote-send ":exec \"tabnext $foundfile\" "
        if [[ $debug ]] ; then echo mvim --servername $server --remote-send ":$line "; fi
        mvim --servername $server --remote-send ":$line "
    fi
done

Save that as an executable in your default path (e.g., /usr/local/bin/macvim-load-line) and open Skim.app, go to Preferences:Sync and make the command look like this:

You need to have mvim on your path. mvim comes with MacVim.app, but is NOT installed by default. Install it by doing something like:

cp /Users/adam/Downloads/MacVim-7_3-53/mvim /usr/local/bin/mvim

You'll also need to install WhichTab.vim in your ~/.vim/plugins/ directory. It's available here ( download link ). Here's the source:

function! WhichTab(filename)
    " Try to determine whether file is open in any tab.  
    " Return number of tab it's open in
    let buffername = bufname(a:filename)
    if buffername == ""
        return 0
    endif
    let buffernumber = bufnr(buffername)

    " tabdo will loop through pages and leave you on the last one;
    " this is to make sure we don't leave the current page
    let currenttab = tabpagenr()
    let tab_arr = []
    tabdo let tab_arr += tabpagebuflist()

    " return to current page
    exec "tabnext ".currenttab

    " Start checking tab numbers for matches
    let i = 0
    for tnum in tab_arr
        let i += 1
        echo "tnum: ".tnum." buff: ".buffernumber." i: ".i
        if tnum == buffernumber
            return i
        endif
    endfor

endfunction

function! WhichWindow(filename)
    " Try to determine whether the file is open in any GVIM *window*
    let serverlist = split(serverlist(),"\n")

    "let currentserver = ????
    for server in serverlist
        let remotetabnum = remote_expr(server, 
            \"WhichTab('".a:filename."')")
        if remotetabnum != 0
            return server
        endif
    endfor

endfunction

latex: producing a bibliography and paper independently

AG

If you want citations to work, but you don't want your bibliography to show up, try the following:

latex file.tex
bibtex file

comment out \biblography{} line

latex file.tex


If you latex again, it will screw up.

To make an independent bibliography, remove all text and replace all citep/citet/cite commands with \nocite{} in a different document. Remember to usepackage{natbib} etc. You may have to copy over the .bbl file.

Ghostscript error?

I've been receiving the following error when attempting to compile (ps2pdf) my w5 outflows paper:

Error: /rangecheck in --get--
Operand stack:
   pdfmark   --dict:20/25(ro)(L)--   --nostringval--   50
Execution stack:
   %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   1878   1   3   %oparray_pop   1877   1   3   %oparray_pop   1861   1   3   %oparray_pop   1755   1   3   %oparray_pop   --nostringval--   %errorexec_pop   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   %finish_show   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   8   6   1   --nostringval--   (pdf_text_enum_t)   %op_show_continue   --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1153/1684(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:71/200(L)--   --dict:125/300(L)--   --dict:44/200(L)--   --dict:138/224(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: 2
Current file position is 267478928
GPL Ghostscript 8.71: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

I get the same error with Ghostscript 8.64, but on my laptop, using the fink version, it works. Similarly, there are errors with the postscript, so I'm led to believe it's an error in latex:

$ latex --version
pdfTeX 3.1415926-1.40.10-2.2 (TeX Live 2009)
kpathsea version 5.0.0
Copyright 2009 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
There is NO warranty.  Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX source.
Primary author of pdfTeX: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Compiled with libpng 1.2.39; using libpng 1.2.39
Compiled with zlib 1.2.3; using zlib 1.2.3
Compiled with xpdf version 3.02pl3

No idea what the cause is but it's time to start documenting steps and looking for a workaround. Compiling on the lappy isn't a good option.

usetex failure in latex documents

When I use matplotlib's internal tex (rcParams['text.useTex']=False), the postscript files generated cause errors that look like this when you try to ps2pdf them:


ps2pdf h2co_pilot.ps
Error: /rangecheck in --get--
Operand stack:
--dict:20/25(ro)(L)-- --nostringval-- 71
Execution stack:
%interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push 1862 1 3 %oparray_pop 1861 1 3 %oparray_pop 1845 1 3 %oparray_pop 1739 1 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval-- %errorexec_pop .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- %finish_show --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 9 6 0 --nostringval-- (pdf_text_enum_t) %op_show_continue --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
--dict:1147/1684(ro)(G)-- --dict:0/20(G)-- --dict:70/200(L)-- --dict:116/300(L)-- --dict:44/200(L)-- --dict:25/42(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: 2
Current file position is 791626
GPL Ghostscript 8.64: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
make: *** [h2co_pilot.pdf] Error 1


They will not open in MacOS's Preview.app either.

Solution: Make figures with rcParams['text.useTex'] = True

wrapping text around a figure in latex

An example from Devin:

%\begin{wrapfigure}{l}{0.5\textwidth}
% \vspace{-27pt}
% \begin{center}
% \includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{nsf_fig3.ps}
% \end{center}
% \vspace{-27pt}
% \caption{\it{}}
% \vspace{-12pt}
%\end{wrapfigure}
1:16
\usepackage{wrapfig}

Detexify!

for when you can't remember how to draw an angstrom:
detexify

LaTeX: replace double quotes with tex quotes

People often make the mistake of putting " in place of `` in LaTeX documents. To repair this, the only easy solution is something like:
s/\(\s\)"/\1``/g
in VIM or sed.

I've seen alternate solutions posted but they're all too complicated. One recommendation was to switch to XeTeX, which sounds like overkill, and others all stated that a complicated perl script is required. The latter is technically true, but why isn't such a thing readily available?

Any other ideas?