LaTeX Community News

TeXnicCenter needs a new Logo

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Sven) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:36:08 +0000

From the TeXnicCenter team: With the new TeXnicCenter 2.0 on the horizon, we are seeking out to our talented users to create beautiful new logos for our latex editor. We are looking for icons to be used for the program itself and for latex documents. In other words, the result of your creative work could be seen by half a million users every day when they double-click on it to start TeXnicCenter. Of course, it will also be used on our websites and wherever we publicize about TeXnicCenter.

This will be an open contest, i.e., your logo will be showcased together with the other submissions here on our website. There will be a possibility to vote for each submission. The one with the most votes will become the new official logo of TeXnicCenter 2.0.

Here are the details:

Schedule

Phase 1: November - December 2009

Submit your work. Make sure you follow the guidelines, format specifications and rules (see below).

Phase 2: January - February 2010

Vote for the logo you like the most. The one with the most votes will be the new official logo of TeXnicCenter 2.0. We will release a new alpha or beta version of TeXnicCenter 2.0 in March 2010 with your new logo.

Guidelines

We need to replace two kinds of logos. First, an icon for the program itself, which will be used in the start menu and on the desktop to start TeXnicCenter. Second, an icon for latex documents, which will be used in Windows Explorer to indicate that a file is a LaTeX document. Below you see the old versions of these icons:

	Old TeXnicCenter program icon (the main logo)
	Old icon for LaTeX documents

Please keep in mind that a logo needs to be clear and not too detailed. A logo is a logo and not a detailed artwork. It should be as simple as possible (but not simpler). There is no need that the name TeXnicCenter is part of the logo.

Format Specifications

The logo should be in one of the following formats:

Vector format: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
Bitmap format: Portable Network Graphics (PNG). You need to provide the resolutions 16x16, 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, 64x64, 256x256, and 512x512.

Note that we need to display the logo also at very small resolutions such as 16x16 pixels. It would be nice to have a simpler version (with less graphic detail) of the logo for that purpose.

While the resolutions are quadratic, the logo itself, i.e., the visual content, does not need to have that aspect ratio.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding the technical details.

Rules

When you submit your work to this contest, you acknowledge that it is your original work, it is not used elsewhere and you are the sole copyright owner.
If you win the contest, you license your work to the community under the GNU General Public License Version 3.
We reserve the right to remove submissions from the contest as we see fit. In particular, it must not exploit or offend anyone's sex, race or religion, or propagate violence.

Submission

You submit your work by sending an email to icon@texniccenter.org

Please send your files packed in a ZIP-file called "txc-logo_Firstname_Lastname.zip". The ZIP should contain at least the following 14 files:

The TeXnicCenter application logo in the seven sizes named "txc-<resolution>.png" where resolution is the image size. Example: "txc-32.png" for the 32x32 image.
The LaTeX document icon in the seven sizes named "latex-<resolution>.png" where resolution is the image size. Example: "latex-32.png" for the 32x32 image.

If you have SVG-files, please name them txc.svg and latex.svg.

TexmakerX 1.9.2 published

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:40:54 +0000

The new version TexmakerX 1.9.2 has been released today. This version brings several new features and fixes some bugs.

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The new version TexmakerX 1.9.2 has been released today. This version brings several new features and fixes some bugs. TexmakerX is a fork of the LaTeX editor Texmaker. It has adopted changes of the original Texmaker 1.9.2 and provides further features like preview for marked text, a random text generator, a synonym dictionary, improved usability, new templates and symbols and more.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

TeXnicCenter 2.0 alpha 1 released

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:10:35 +0000

The first Alpha version of the upcoming Version 2.0 of the LaTeX editor TeXnicCenter has been released today. It is a development version, not stable, just released for testing, but it shows that the development is in progress and it gives an impression of the new version.

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The first alpha version of the upcoming Version 2.0 of the LaTeX editor TeXnicCenter has been released today. It is a development version, not stable, just released for testing, but it shows that the development is in progress and it gives an impression of the new version.

Some of the new features are:

a new editor component based on Scintilla providing zoom, proportional fonts and code folding,
Unicode support to enable writing in Russian, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, …
improved modern user interface, the tool windows could be rearranged,
improved BibTeX support regarding error parsing, search in literature tool window.

TXC 2.0 has been developed with Visual Studio 2008, not with the free version because access to the MFC is needed. Help in development is welcome, if you’re interested contact the maintainer Tino Weinkauf.

For more information and download visit

the announcement of Tino containing further information about known issues,
the download page,
the TeXnicCenter homepage,
the review of TXC 2.0 alpha by Thorsten on LaTeX-Community.org.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

REVTeX 4.1 Released

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:00:51 +0000

The first update to REVTeX since 2001 has been released yesterday, today it's been uploaded to CTAN. REVTeX 4.1 is a set of LaTeX2e macro packages. It is especially well-suited for preparing manuscripts for submission to the journals of the American Physical Society (APS) and American Institute of Physics (AIP). The Version 4.1 brings bug fixes, improved functionality and support for a wider range of journals.

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The first update to REVTeX since 2001 has been released yesterday, today it’s been uploaded to CTAN. REVTeX 4.1 is a set of LaTeX2e macro packages. It is especially well-suited for preparing manuscripts for submission to the journals of the American Physical Society (APS) and American Institute of Physics (AIP). The Version 4.1 brings bug fixes, improved functionality and support for a wider range of journals.

For more information, download and documentation including update info and FAQ visit the REVTeX 4 homepage.

LaTeX at the Ubucon 2009

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:20:52 +0000

The German Ubuntu Linux User Conference "Ubucon" will be held for the third time in Göttingen, hosted by the Georg August University, October 19-22, 2009. The conference program includes three LaTeX events: the talk "LaTeX in the year 2009" and the workshops "LaTeX introduction for new users" and "Producing magazines with LaTeX".

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The German Ubuntu Linux User Conference “Ubucon” will be held for the third time in Göttingen, hosted by the Georg August University, October 19-22, 2009.

The conference program includes three LaTeX events:

LaTeX in the year 2009: talk about new TeX software and features like TeX Live 2009, Biber, Asymptote, LuaTeX and XeTeX, further small tools will be presented. Friday, 4-6pm.
LaTeX introduction for new users: a workshop introducing the LaTeX system, presenting basic features and commands. Users are encouraged to bring their own laptops to the workshop for participation. Saturday, 9-11am.
Producing magazines with LaTeX: a workshop for advanced users dealing with layout topics like wrapping text around figures with the goal of creating a magazine. Users should join with a laptop. Saturday, 11-13am.

For further information like program, accommodation and news visit the Ubucon Homepage.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

Dutch LaTeX Forum founded

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 23:55:07 +0000

The Nederlandstalig LaTeX Forum has been founded by Frank Puttemans today. It's a LaTeX Forum in Dutch language. Especially Dutch-speaking LaTeX users are invited to join the forum, to ask questions and to answer questions of other users. The first forum post has been written today, there's more to come.

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The Nederlandstalig LaTeX Forum has been founded by Frank Puttemans today. It’s a LaTeX Forum in Dutch language. Especially Dutch-speaking LaTeX users are invited to join the forum, to open discussions, to share knowledge and to answer questions of other users. The first forum post has been written today, there’s more to come.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

LEd 0.53 released

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:46:44 +0000

Version 0.53 of LEd, a freeware LaTeX-Editor for Windows systems, has been released. New features are dvi viewer support for both MiKTeX 2.8 and TeX Live 2008, a Dutch (Belgium) dictionary, the Italian translations have been updated as well as English and Polish dictionaries, the performance has been improved and some small bugs have been fixed.

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For further information visit

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

Overview of the dtx format

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:02:46 +0000

Joseph Wright has published a post giving an overview of the dtx format on his blog Some TeX Developments. It's the first post of a small series dealing with that LaTeX package format.

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Joseph Wright has published a post giving an overview of the dtx format on his blog Some TeX Developments. It’s the first post of a small series dealing with that LaTeX package format.

match_parens: new tool to check parenthesis matching

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:15:59 +0000

The script match_parens has been uploaded to CTAN today. This Ruby program has been written by Wybo Dekker to assist the user in checking parenthesis (and braces, brackets) balancing in documents, the characters {}[]()<> are supported.

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The script match_parens has been uploaded to CTAN today. This program has been written by Wybo Dekker to assist the user in checking parenthesis (and braces, brackets) balancing in documents, the characters {}[]()<> are supported.

It’s written in Ruby, though it’s been announced on ctan-ann as Perl script, therefore a Ruby installation is required. On Ubuntu (and Debian) Linux systems Ruby can be installed by:
sudo apt-get install ruby
which installs libruby1.8, ruby, ruby1.8 on Ubuntu 9.04. Of course it could be done using Synaptic on Ubuntu as well. You can define the script to be executable by
chmod u+x match_parens
or use option a instead of u to allow execution by all users. Afterwards the script could by invoked with the name of the file to be checked as parameter, like
./match_parens test.tex
The output of the programm will show mismatches at the left margin. Have a look at this example:

1	[	[Hello, here is some
2		text] (without) a meaning.
3	(	(This text should show,
4	(	how a printed text will
5		look like at this place.)
6	({	({If you read this text,
7		you will get no information}).
8		Really? Is there no information?
9	[	Is there [a difference between
10		this text and ] some nonsense
11		like Huardest gefburn . Kjift –
12	((	Never mind! (A blind text (like
13	(	this) gives you information about
14	({[	{[the selected font, how the
15	({[	letters are written and the
16	({[)	impression of the look).
17	({[)

Unmached parentheses can be seen on the left, vanishing after being matched, at the end you can see the remaining matching problems.

This small tool with its just about 20 lines of Ruby code can be useful especially in checking large TeX documents where errors for instance caused by nested braces could be hard to locate.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

WinShell 3.31 Beta released

mailrobot@latex-community.org (Stefan_K) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:39:34 +0000

Version 3.31 Beta of the TeX/LaTeX-IDE WinShell has been released by Ingo H. de Boer today. This editor runs on Windows systems and provides project management, syntax highlighting, spell checking, BibTeX support, Unicode support, different toolbars and configuration options.

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Fixes and improvements to version 3.30 are:

Update to Scintilla 2.01,
Improved BibTeX front-end: disable/enable,
Improved BibTeX Project Window: toggle author/label view, show all entries,
Autocompletion for LaTeX commands and BibTeX labels.

You can download it here or visit the WinShell Homepage for more information.

The latest stable version is 3.30.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.