How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Tariq]

Hi Everyone,

I am using Gnu Emacs 22 GTK with AucTeX under Ubuntu. I am not a
programmer but I have built up a nice .emacs file with help from all
the kind folks. When I load a (La)TeX file, I can get all the nice
menus related to LaTeX such as Preview, LaTeX, Command, Math, Ref etc.
Under he Command menu, I see a set of options called TeXing Options
which has things like PDF Mode, Run Interactively,  and others.

I would like to include in one of these menus (preferably under the
Command menu) the option to run xetex/xelatex also so that I can use
Emacs to compile XeLaTeX files. So far, I am having to go to the
Terminal to issue

xelatex

command while I edit these files in Emacs. This seems rather awkward
(if not an outright insult to Emacs!).

I would appreciate some advice and help.

Regards,

Tariq

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Teemu Likonen]

* 2010-04-23 10:54 (-0700), Tariq wrote:

> I would like to include in one of these menus (preferably under the
> Command menu) the option to run xetex/xelatex also so that I can use
> Emacs to compile XeLaTeX files.

You could do it with hook:


    (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'my-latex-mode-hook)

    (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
      (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
                   '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t)))


The following is a fancier version of the hook. It sets XeLaTeX the
default compiler when it finds fontspec or mathspec package being loaded
with \usepackage{}.


    (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
      (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
                   '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t))
      (setq TeX-command-default
            (save-excursion
              (save-restriction
                (widen)
                (goto-char (point-min))
                (let ((re (concat "^\\s-*\\\\usepackage\\(?:\\[.*\\]\\)?"
                                  "{.*\\<\\(?:font\\|math\\)spec\\>.*}")))
                  (if (re-search-forward re 3000 t)
                      "XeLaTeX"
                    "LaTeX"))))))

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Tariq]

On Apr 23, 2:23 pm, Teemu Likonen <tliko...@iki.fi> wrote:
> * 2010-04-23 10:54 (-0700), Tariq wrote:
>
> > I would like to include in one of these menus (preferably under the
> > Command menu) the option to run xetex/xelatex also so that I can use
> > Emacs to compile XeLaTeX files.
>
> You could do it with hook:
>
>     (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'my-latex-mode-hook)
>
>     (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
>       (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
>                    '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t)))
>
> The following is a fancier version of the hook. It sets XeLaTeX the
> default compiler when it finds fontspec or mathspec package being loaded
> with \usepackage{}.
>
>     (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
>       (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
>                    '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t))
>       (setq TeX-command-default
>             (save-excursion
>               (save-restriction
>                 (widen)
>                 (goto-char (point-min))
>                 (let ((re (concat "^\\s-*\\\\usepackage\\(?:\\[.*\\]\\)?"
>                                   "{.*\\<\\(?:font\\|math\\)spec\\>.*}")))
>                   (if (re-search-forward re 3000 t)
>                       "XeLaTeX"
>                     "LaTeX"))))))

Thank you so much for the code for two hooks. Consider this my naivity
but I cannot tell the difference (if any) in the behaviour of Emacs
when using the first or the second (fancier) hook. Specifically, I see
the appearance of XeLaTeX under the Command menu after opening a .tex
file and this is the case with either code. Similarly, when I select
(in TeXing Options) PDF Mode, I still need to press XeLaTeX in Command
menu.

I got the impression from your description that with the fancier code,
the LaTeX option would execute XeLaTeX if the file has
\usepackage{fontspec} in it. this does not appear to be the case. Most
likely, I am confused about something. What specifically is the
difference in the expected behaviour of these two codes? I would
appreciate if you could elaborate. Regards,

Tariq

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Teemu Likonen]

* 2010-04-23 12:04 (-0700), Tariq wrote:

> Thank you so much for the code for two hooks. Consider this my naivity
> but I cannot tell the difference (if any) in the behaviour of Emacs
> when using the first or the second (fancier) hook. Specifically, I see
> the appearance of XeLaTeX under the Command menu after opening a .tex
> file and this is the case with either code. Similarly, when I select
> (in TeXing Options) PDF Mode, I still need to press XeLaTeX in Command
> menu.

The "fancy" version sets the default compiler command for the document
when you load a tex file or switch to latex-mode. I think you'll notice
the difference when you use C-c C-c to compile a document. With the
"fancy" version it's either XeLaTeX or LaTeX, depending on whether there
is \usepackage{fontspec} (or mathspec) within the first 3000 characters
of the document.

Or that's how it works in my system. I don't know Auctex very deeply and
its different versions may behave differently.

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Tariq]

On Apr 23, 3:45 pm, Teemu Likonen <tliko...@iki.fi> wrote:
> * 2010-04-23 12:04 (-0700), Tariq wrote:
>
> > Thank you so much for the code for two hooks. Consider this my naivity
> > but I cannot tell the difference (if any) in the behaviour of Emacs
> > when using the first or the second (fancier) hook. Specifically, I see
> > the appearance of XeLaTeX under the Command menu after opening a .tex
> > file and this is the case with either code. Similarly, when I select
> > (in TeXing Options) PDF Mode, I still need to press XeLaTeX in Command
> > menu.
>
> The "fancy" version sets the default compiler command for the document
> when you load a tex file or switch to latex-mode. I think you'll notice
> the difference when you use C-c C-c to compile a document. With the
> "fancy" version it's either XeLaTeX or LaTeX, depending on whether there
> is \usepackage{fontspec} (or mathspec) within the first 3000 characters
> of the document.
>
> Or that's how it works in my system. I don't know Auctex very deeply and
> its different versions may behave differently.

Hi Teemu

Thanks for the tip. You're right, I noticed the Ctrl-c Ctrl-c
behaviour exactly as you described.

I'll stick with the fancy version because I can just use the keyboard
for faster compilation.

Best,

Tariq

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Tariq]

On Apr 23, 2:23 pm, Teemu Likonen <tliko...@iki.fi> wrote:
> * 2010-04-23 10:54 (-0700), Tariq wrote:
>
> > I would like to include in one of these menus (preferably under the
> > Command menu) the option to run xetex/xelatex also so that I can use
> > Emacs to compile XeLaTeX files.
>
> You could do it with hook:
>
>     (add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook #'my-latex-mode-hook)
>
>     (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
>       (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
>                    '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t)))
>
> The following is a fancier version of the hook. It sets XeLaTeX the
> default compiler when it finds fontspec or mathspec package being loaded
> with \usepackage{}.
>
>     (defun my-latex-mode-hook ()
>       (add-to-list 'TeX-command-list
>                    '("XeLaTeX" "%`xelatex%(mode)%' %t" TeX-run-TeX nil t))
>       (setq TeX-command-default
>             (save-excursion
>               (save-restriction
>                 (widen)
>                 (goto-char (point-min))
>                 (let ((re (concat "^\\s-*\\\\usepackage\\(?:\\[.*\\]\\)?"
>                                   "{.*\\<\\(?:font\\|math\\)spec\\>.*}")))
>                   (if (re-search-forward re 3000 t)
>                       "XeLaTeX"
>                     "LaTeX"))))))

Perhaps I am being too demanding here (but considering this is Emacs
we are talking about, it should come as no surprise):  it possible to
have a little icon or something show up (along with other icons below
the main menu) indicating XeLaTeX and one could just click with mouse
to run xelatex? I see LaTeX (or pdf) icons among others that do this
for pdflatex or latex.

Best regards,

Tariq

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Ralf Angeli]

* Tariq (2010-04-23) writes:

> Perhaps I am being too demanding here (but considering this is Emacs
> we are talking about, it should come as no surprise):  it possible to
> have a little icon or something show up (along with other icons below
> the main menu) indicating XeLaTeX and one could just click with mouse
> to run xelatex? I see LaTeX (or pdf) icons among others that do this
> for pdflatex or latex.

How about upgrading AUCTeX and making use of `TeX-engine'?

-- 
Ralf

Re: How to get xetex/xelatex option in the Emacs menu?

[Tariq]

On Apr 23, 5:32 pm, Ralf Angeli <dev.n...@caeruleus.net> wrote:
> * Tariq (2010-04-23) writes:
> > Perhaps I am being too demanding here (but considering this is Emacs
> > we are talking about, it should come as no surprise):  it possible to
> > have a little icon or something show up (along with other icons below
> > the main menu) indicating XeLaTeX and one could just click with mouse
> > to run xelatex? I see LaTeX (or pdf) icons among others that do this
> > for pdflatex or latex.
>
> How about upgrading AUCTeX and making use of `TeX-engine'?
>
> --
> Ralf

I installed Emacs 22 and AucTeX from the Ubuntu 9.10 repositories only
two days ago. That is the latest version they have. Since I have never
done these installations manually, I am not sure how to go about it
such that my existing system would not break.

If you can give some hints as to how to proceed, I would definitely
like to upgrade AucTeX and would certainly appreciate.

Regards,

Tariq