Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

Hi,

I like to use long names for labels in my LaTeX code. However, I find the 
corresponding long reference commands disturbing when reading the code. Is 
it possible to hide these references? 

An example:
  Instead of 
    We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
  I want to see
    We use equation # to show something.
  but upon moving the cursor on top of the '#' I want to see 
    We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
  again.

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> I like to use long names for labels in my LaTeX code.

Why?  Are you using RefTeX?  It comes bundled with Emacs, creates
labels automatically and makes handling them a breeze.  For example,
in connection with AUCTeX it automatically assigns labels like
\label{eq:21} which sounds like a pretty bad idea until you realize
that C-c ) will give you a list of all relevant equations to scroll
through and hit the right one.  So no need to memorize any labels.

> However, I find the 
> corresponding long reference commands disturbing when reading the code. Is 
> it possible to hide these references? 

> An example:
>   Instead of 
>     We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
>   I want to see
>     We use equation # to show something.
>   but upon moving the cursor on top of the '#' I want to see 
>     We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
>   again.

preview-latex <URL:http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net> would do
exactly that if you created a file prauctex.cfg with the contents

\PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref
\InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}

in your project directory.  You could also try
\PreviewCommand[!]\ref
to have the dereferenced label itself displayed as typeset by LaTeX,
or
\RequirePackage{url}
\PreviewCommand[!][\@firstoftwo\url#1]\ref
to have the original label text in typewriter mode and so on.

Also handy for collapsing footnotes into their respective footnote
mark.  In short, preview-latex allows you to tell LaTeX how you want
certain constructs display in your Emacs window, obviously defaulting
to their normal typeset rendition.

But for labels, I'd really recommend going with RefTeX instead.  Try
it.  Manual should be available with
C-h i d m reftex RET

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
> Why?  Are you using RefTeX?  It comes bundled with Emacs, creates
> labels automatically and makes handling them a breeze.  For example,
> in connection with AUCTeX it automatically assigns labels like
> \label{eq:21} which sounds like a pretty bad idea until you realize
> that C-c ) will give you a list of all relevant equations to scroll
> through and hit the right one.  So no need to memorize any labels.

I already use RefTeX but I find the label names are too long in the 
corresponding references. They are disturbing when reading text onscreen. 

>> An example:
>>   Instead of
>>     We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
>>   I want to see
>>     We use equation # to show something.
>>   but upon moving the cursor on top of the '#' I want to see
>>     We use equation \ref{SomeVeryVeryLongReference} to show something.
>>   again.
> 
> preview-latex <URL:http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net> would do
> exactly that 

I am already using it all the time.

> if you created a file prauctex.cfg with the contents
> 
> \PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref
> \InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}
> 
> in your project directory.  You could also try
> \PreviewCommand[!]\ref
> to have the dereferenced label itself displayed as typeset by LaTeX,
> or
> \RequirePackage{url}
> \PreviewCommand[!][\@firstoftwo\url#1]\ref
> to have the original label text in typewriter mode and so on.
> 
> Also handy for collapsing footnotes into their respective footnote
> mark.  In short, preview-latex allows you to tell LaTeX how you want
> certain constructs display in your Emacs window, obviously defaulting
> to their normal typeset rendition.

Thanks I'll try this out. Preview-LaTeX is wonderful - I love it:)
 
> But for labels, I'd really recommend going with RefTeX instead.  Try
> it.  Manual should be available with
> C-h i d m reftex RET

I don't see a reason why I shouldn't use RefTeX and Preview-LaTeX for 
handling references at the same time.

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
> \PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref
> \InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}
> 
> in your project directory.  You could also try
> \PreviewCommand[!]\ref
> to have the dereferenced label itself displayed as typeset by LaTeX,
> or
> \RequirePackage{url}
> \PreviewCommand[!][\@firstoftwo\url#1]\ref
> to have the original label text in typewriter mode and so on.

Hm, I just tried it but it doesn't work. Here's what I did:
1. I created the cfg file with the contents (I also tried
   \PreviewCommand[!]\ref instead)
     \PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref
     \InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}
   in the project directory, restarted EMACS (to avoid trouble). Then, I
   opened a tex file belonging to the project and hit C-c C-p C-b. This
   caused equations, sections, etc. to be TeXed but the \ref's weren't
   affected.
2. I appended "\PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref" to "Preview Default Preamble" in
   the Preview-Latex customization group and saved the setting for future
   sessions. Then, I restarted EMACS and opened a tex file and hit C-c C-p
   C-b, the \ref's aren't affected.
BTW, RefTeX wasn't turned on during the above experiments.

I'm sure I'm doing something obvious wrong, but I appended the information 
generated by preview-report-bug below anyhow. Any ideas what might be the 
cause of my trouble?

Felix


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Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> > \PreviewCommand[!][\#]\ref
> > \InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}
> > 
> > in your project directory.  You could also try
> > \PreviewCommand[!]\ref
> > to have the dereferenced label itself displayed as typeset by LaTeX,
> > or
> > \RequirePackage{url}
> > \PreviewCommand[!][\@firstoftwo\url#1]\ref
> > to have the original label text in typewriter mode and so on.
> 
> Hm, I just tried it but it doesn't work. Here's what I did:

Reading the manual or the FAQ or the style file documentation about
customization would have been sufficient to tell you in mere seconds
that I am an idiot that does not even remember the names of his
own macros.

Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
> Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.

Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I wanted 
the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> > Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.
> 
> Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I
> wanted the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.

Well, _that_ is something that preview-latex can't do.  Yet.  In
principle, it would not be too hard _not_ to write out an image, but
merely text how something should be displayed.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
>> > Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.
>> 
>> Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I
>> wanted the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.
> 
> Well, _that_ is something that preview-latex can't do.  Yet.

BTW, such a feature would also be great for example for replacing "\emph{bla 
bla bla}" by "bla bla bla" displayed in bold face.

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> >> > Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.
> >> 
> >> Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I
> >> wanted the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.
> > 
> > Well, _that_ is something that preview-latex can't do.  Yet.
> 
> BTW, such a feature would also be great for example for replacing
> "\emph{bla bla bla}" by "bla bla bla" displayed in bold face.

If you think it great, you can already do so with font-lock-mode.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
>> >> > Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.
>> >> 
>> >> Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I
>> >> wanted the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.
>> > 
>> > Well, _that_ is something that preview-latex can't do.  Yet.
>> 
>> BTW, such a feature would also be great for example for replacing
>> "\emph{bla bla bla}" by "bla bla bla" displayed in bold face.
> 
> If you think it great, you can already do so with font-lock-mode.

But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}", right?

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> >> >> > Apropos: try \PreviewMacro instead of \PreviewCommand.
> >> >> 
> >> >> Thanks, now it works. However, it is not quite what I was after: I
> >> >> wanted the '#' to be displayed in the default font, not as an image.
> >> > 
> >> > Well, _that_ is something that preview-latex can't do.  Yet.
> >> 
> >> BTW, such a feature would also be great for example for replacing
> >> "\emph{bla bla bla}" by "bla bla bla" displayed in bold face.
> > 
> > If you think it great, you can already do so with font-lock-mode.
> 
> But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}", right?

Well, you could let it use an invisible font or something, but that
would probably be not quite convenient for editing.  Perhaps in
connection with auto-reveal-mode something could be fudged.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Oliver Scholz]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

> "Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:
[...]
>> But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}", right?
>
> Well, you could let it use an invisible font or something, but that
> would probably be not quite convenient for editing.  Perhaps in
> connection with auto-reveal-mode something could be fudged.
[...]

Hmm, what would be the cleaner/easier solution: to add that feature to
preview-latex or to the font-locking in AUCTeX?

[What do you mean by "invisible font"?]

    Oliver
-- 
9 Ventôse an 211 de la Révolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

Oliver Scholz <alkibiades@gmx.de> writes:

> David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:
> 
> > "Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:
> [...]
> >> But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}", right?
> > Well, you could let it use an invisible font or something, but that
> > would probably be not quite convenient for editing.  Perhaps in
> > connection with auto-reveal-mode something could be fudged.
> [...]
> 
> Hmm, what would be the cleaner/easier solution: to add that feature to
> preview-latex or to the font-locking in AUCTeX?

preview-latex would need to achieve two different things here: not
display \emph at all, and add text properties to the argument.  The
interface does not currently permit a command and its arguments to be
treated differently, and it might be quite a feat to implement
something like that consistently.  OTOH, it would offer quite numerous
possibilities to mark things up in the Emacs buffer that are hard to
parse correctly otherwise.  For example, if you take the source code
of packages like verbatim.sty, it is almost impossible with all the
catcode changes and whatever going on to let Emacs correctly
determine just what is to be font locked as verbatim and what not.
Using preview-latex would make getting the correct information easy.

> [What do you mean by "invisible font"?]

Text property 'invisible would probably be sufficient.  I am not sure
if font-lock-mode can only select particular faces (in which case one
would use something like invisible-face) or arbitrary text properties.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Oliver Scholz]

David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org> writes:

[...]
> OTOH, it would offer quite numerous possibilities to mark things up
> in the Emacs buffer that are hard to parse correctly otherwise. For
> example, if you take the source code of packages like verbatim.sty,
> it is almost impossible with all the catcode changes and whatever
> going on to let Emacs correctly determine just what is to be font
> locked as verbatim and what not. Using preview-latex would make
> getting the correct information easy.

Unfortunately I am rather a dummy when it comes to LaTeX, so
personally I would rather not go down that path.

>> [What do you mean by "invisible font"?]
>
> Text property 'invisible would probably be sufficient.  I am not sure
> if font-lock-mode can only select particular faces (in which case one
> would use something like invisible-face) or arbitrary text properties.

AFAIK you can't put arbitrary text properties on the text out of the
box. But font-lock can execute arbitrary code when it finds a
match. This could be used to do this. It could also put appropriate
functions on the `point-entered' and `point-left' properties to
implement the auto-reveal/auto-hide stuff.

Should this be implemented as a minor mode?

    Oliver
-- 
9 Ventôse an 211 de la Révolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Oliver Scholz]

Oliver Scholz <alkibiades@gmx.de> writes:
[...]
> It could also put appropriate functions on the `point-entered' and
> `point-left' properties to implement the auto-reveal/auto-hide
> stuff.
[...]

Hmpf, it seems that there is a bug in the code dealing with those
properties.

    Oliver
-- 
10 Ventôse an 211 de la Révolution
Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité!

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
>> [...]
>> >> But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}",
>> >> right?
>> > Well, you could let it use an invisible font or something, but that
>> > would probably be not quite convenient for editing.  Perhaps in
>> > connection with auto-reveal-mode something could be fudged.
>> [...]
>> 
>> Hmm, what would be the cleaner/easier solution: to add that feature to
>> preview-latex or to the font-locking in AUCTeX?
> 
> preview-latex would need to achieve two different things here: not
> display \emph at all, and add text properties to the argument.  The
> interface does not currently permit a command and its arguments to be
> treated differently, and it might be quite a feat to implement
> something like that consistently. 

Is this really neccessary? Preview-LaTeX takes for example "\emph{bla bla 
bla}" and passes it to an external tool, latex, which creates an image that 
replaces the corresponding text. Wouldn't it be possible to let the user 
specify another tool (probably a simple lisp function) instead that takes 
"\emph{bla bla bla}", processes it and creates soem text (eg. "*bla bla 
bla*", faces might be problematic) that is used to replace "\emph{bla bla 
bla}"?

Felix

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[David Kastrup]

"Felix E. Klee" <felix.klee@inka.de> writes:

> David Kastrup wrote:
> >> [...]
> >> >> But font-lock-mode can't hide he "\emph{" and the corresponding "}",
> >> >> right?
> >> > Well, you could let it use an invisible font or something, but that
> >> > would probably be not quite convenient for editing.  Perhaps in
> >> > connection with auto-reveal-mode something could be fudged.
> >> [...]
> >> 
> >> Hmm, what would be the cleaner/easier solution: to add that feature to
> >> preview-latex or to the font-locking in AUCTeX?
> > 
> > preview-latex would need to achieve two different things here: not
> > display \emph at all, and add text properties to the argument.  The
> > interface does not currently permit a command and its arguments to be
> > treated differently, and it might be quite a feat to implement
> > something like that consistently. 
> 
> Is this really neccessary? Preview-LaTeX takes for example "\emph{bla bla 
> bla}" and passes it to an external tool, latex, which creates an image that 
> replaces the corresponding text. Wouldn't it be possible to let the user 
> specify another tool (probably a simple lisp function) instead that takes 
> "\emph{bla bla bla}", processes it and creates soem text (eg. "*bla bla 
> bla*", faces might be problematic) that is used to replace "\emph{bla bla 
> bla}"?

That would be close to useless.  The main problem with preview-latex
is that images themselves are not editable, and the larger the unit
becomes (like a whole figure), the less convenient for editing.  When
you enter such an image, it gets replaced by its source text.  You
can already let preview-latex let an environment like \emph be
replaced by a _graphic_.  The main problem is not that it is a
graphic, but that you can't edit it because the relation between its
looks and the source text can't be reestablished, and that its line
breaks are completely different and so on.

You demand something that has all the editing disadvantages of an
image without an obvious advantage to show.

No, if this feature is supposed to be usable separately, it must have
a way to specify text properties affixed to the source text instead
of merely a replacement text.  That preview-latex would then make
sense even on text terminals would be a funny side effect.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum

Re: Hiding references when editing LaTeX?

[Felix E. Klee]

David Kastrup wrote:
>> Is this really neccessary? Preview-LaTeX takes for example "\emph{bla bla
>> bla}" and passes it to an external tool, latex, which creates an image
>> that replaces the corresponding text. Wouldn't it be possible to let the
>> user specify another tool (probably a simple lisp function) instead that
>> takes "\emph{bla bla bla}", processes it and creates soem text (eg. "*bla
>> bla bla*", faces might be problematic) that is used to replace "\emph{bla
>> bla bla}"?
> 
> That would be close to useless.  The main problem with preview-latex
> is that images themselves are not editable, and the larger the unit
> becomes (like a whole figure), the less convenient for editing.  When
> you enter such an image, it gets replaced by its source text.  You
> can already let preview-latex let an environment like \emph be
> replaced by a _graphic_.  The main problem is not that it is a
> graphic, but that you can't edit it because the relation between its
> looks and the source text can't be reestablished, and that its line
> breaks are completely different and so on.
> 
> You demand something that has all the editing disadvantages of an
> image without an obvious advantage to show.

Here are some advantages for displaying text instead of images:
1. It is faster.
2. It might be more readable when the face that is used is similar or
   identical to the default face.
3. Text can be wrapped when a line gets too long.

> No, if this feature is supposed to be usable separately, it must have
> a way to specify text properties affixed to the source text instead
> of merely a replacement text.

That would be a cool feature, but is not absolutely neccessary, IMHO.

Felix