If you have problems setting up a SVN connection using Subclipse, I might have the solution, or if you want to know more about how to set up Eclipse as a LaTeX environment, check out one of my previous posts.

I have for a long time been using LaTeX on Ubuntu without any particular problems. However, I ran into a problem with the hyperref package. The problem was a bug which was fixed but not included in the version available through Ubuntu’s repositories.

When I recently reinstalled Ubuntu I decided to install the most recent version of TeX Live manually. This was very easy. Just download the most recent release, extract it, and follow these instructions for installing it. There you go.

Project properties

I have previously written about how I set up a LaTeX template by using Eclipse and Texlipse. To activate the TeX Live binaries in Eclipse you must select the properties for one of your projects, select “Latex Project Properties”, and “Setup build tools”.

Build tool setup

Next, you have to find the TeX Live binary folder (default: /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/[Platform]) and press apply.

If you have problems using Subclipse inside of Eclipse and get an error message containing “cannot create tunnel” you might want to change the SVN interface you are using. For some reason JavaHL (JNI) does not always work. I have not figured out why but the problem disappears when using SVNKit. If you want to fix this open Eclipse, and open the menu illustrated above (Window->Preferences->Team->SVN) and change the setting. This has at lest solved my problems with SVN over SSH. The only problem is that it is at least two years since I last had to fix this and I had totally forgot …

First, download and install Eclipse. Second, install Texlipse by following these instructions. Then follow the four steps below.

One, create a new project.

Two, select a Latex project.

Three, give the project a name.

Four, select the output and source folders. I always use src and out and so does the template.

Five, extract the files from the template into the project’s folder under the your workspace. Finally, refresh  the content of your project.

The project is now ready to be modified all you want. Good luck with your thesis

There are probably more options for writing your publications and your thesis than there are stars in the sky. I will not go into detail on hardly any of these (see for instance here). Most people choose between an office tool like Mircrosoft Word or OpenOffice, or a typesetting language like LaTeX. Office tools offer easy editing based on WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) and with reference managers like Endnote they would probably work quite well. That is if you are writing small to moderate sized documents, strictly using document styles, never writing mathematical formulas, and writing alone or with some sort of e-mail document locking.

LaTeX has its shortcomings as well. You have to compile the document, writing tables can sometimes be painful, the treshold for using it is higher and it is sometimes a bit difficult to place tables and figures exactly where you want them to be. However, LaTeX shines when you easily want to create large, good looking documents with plenty of (cross) references. Completely change the style of large documents is done in seconds thanks to the variety of packages and templates available through the Internet. LaTeX is furthermore written in plain text, meaning that you can use your editor of choice. Additionally, you can use Subversion (a revision control system) or similar tools for document version control and backup. This is to me a very important feature as you can easily collaborate with others on the same document, work on it from more than one computer and be certain that everything is safely backed up. Safe and secure backup should be the first commandment of all PhD students and researchers. Take a look at this comparison of Word and LaTeX or use a search engine to find more information about the strengths and weaknesses of the two.

While there are several text editors and editors designed for Latex I started using Eclipse to write LaTeX documents a few years ago while writing documentation for a Java project. It was easy to use the same editor for both tasks. Even though Eclipse is or should I say was an IDE it works quite well as a text editor and it allows me to use the same platform on both Linux and Windows. To simplify the LaTeX editing I use the Texlipse plug-in for Eclipse. This enables auto completion, colored text and visual feedback of compilation errors, see below.

To enable Subversion I use the Subclipse plug-in. This allows easy check out and commit of files from within the Eclipse platform.

Both plug-ins can easily be installed using the “Software update” feature of Eclipse but you do of course need a TeX implementation. This is included in most(?) Linux distributions and on Windows you may download and install MikTeX. What I like the most about MikTeX is that it automatically downloads missing packages.

Fitting different software systems together is not always done without small configuration challenges. As for instance after updating to the newest release of Eclipse (Ganymede) and reinstalling Subclipse I got some error message and I had to set the correct SVN interface. The good thing about many open source products is that they have plenty of users and in this case someone had already found a solution to the problem.