TEXDOCTK(1) General Commands Manual TEXDOCTK(1)
NAME
texdoctk - GUI for easier access of TeX package and program documenta-
tions
SYNOPSIS
texdoctk -[aq]
DESCRIPTION
texdoctk is a GUI for easier access to a large part of the vast amount
of package and program documentations and tutorials for TeX and its dif-
ferent derivatives (mainly LaTeX). It is optimized and included in the
teTeX and fpTeX distributions and also available with TeXLive.
The documentation is grouped into 17 categories; the 18th button of the
main panel is inactive by default and intended for use with local addi-
tions (see section CONFIGURATION below).
In the settings window you see a checkbox in the html->ps and text->ps
converter menus for switching on/off output redirect. This is due to the
fact that some converters do not write their output into a file but to
stdout by default, so a redirect is needed, e.g.
a2ps myfile.txt >myfile.ps
OPTIONS
-v verbose: enable some viewer messages which are otherwise sent to
stderr, as well as some warning popup windows. This can also be
set in a configuration file.
-a autoview: autostart viewer if a listbox contains only one item
(this will frequently happen in search results). This can also be
set in a configuration file.
CONFIGURATION
The configuration is controlled by the system default configuration file
($TEXMFMAIN)/texdoctk/texdocrc.defaults, most of whose entries can
though be overridden by the users' own optional ~/.texdocrc files and/or
command line options.
The Settings menu and configuration files
The Settings menu is used to change the user-definable settings of tex-
doctk for the duration of the program call or as new defaults. The lat-
ter case is the purpose of the Save button, which generates or rewrites
the user's own ~/.texdocrc file. The system defaults cannot be edited
with the Settings menu.
Paths The TEXMF-type paths on the system are reported, and the user can
specify the name of the subdirectory of $HOMETEXMF, where the
personal documentation is stored.
General viewer behaviour
Suppress error messages toggle verbose mode (see option -v); de-
fault is off.
Autostart viewer for one-item listboxes if a listbox contains
only one item (see option -a)
Use text viewer for unknown file format i.e. treat the file as
plain text. texdoctk should recognize the usual file formats and
also relate names like README to plain text, but some docs may
have freely invented names. Default is on; if switched off, try-
ing to view such files will raise an error. The switch does not
influence printing: unrecognized formats cannot be printed.
Change viewer colours using either RGB triplets in the format
#rrggbb or the standardized names.
DVI/PostScript/PDF/HTML/Plain text
For text files, texdoctk provides an own viewer. If this viewer
is disabled, but no alternative viewer is specified, texdoctk
tries to read the content of the environment variable $PAGER.
If you want to print the documentations, you will need converters
to turn non-PS files into PostScript. Here are some suggestions:
dvi->ps: dvips (is part of teTeX) (http://www.radical-
eye.com/dvips.html)
pdf->ps: pdf2ps (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost) or Acrobat
Reader (http://www.adobe.com)
html->ps: html2ps (http://user.it.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html)
plain text->ps: a2ps (http://www-inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/)
The html->ps and text->ps converter menus for switching on/off
output redirect. This is due to the fact that some converters do
not write their output into a file but to stdout by default, so a
redirect is needed, e.g. a2ps myfile.txt >myfile.ps
The system-wide configuration file is ($TEXMFMAIN)/texdoctk/texdocrc.de-
faults and should only be writable by the administrator of the installa-
tion using any text editor. The optional user configuration file is
~/.texdocrc and can override all but those system settings which affect
the installation as a whole. The preferred way of changing it is through
the Settings menu.
The databases
texdoctk comes with a default database file ($TEXMFMAIN)/texdoctk/tex-
doctk.dat with a special format. It is divided into 17 sections corre-
sponding to the 17 buttons that are active by default. Each section be-
gins with a line
@section_name
where section_name is the text as it appears in the button. This title
is followed by the descriptive entries for each documentation, which
have this format:
package-label;Short description for listbox (opt. package-name);path in
doc directory;optional keywords
(without breaking the line!). Comments (initiated with a #) and empty
lines are ignored by the program. The second field is the text displayed
in the selection listboxes of texdoctk, and you will usually want to
mention the name of the package in parens along with it; the first field
is a unique label for the package for internal use of the program which
will usually be chosen identical to the package name, but can be differ-
ent if there is more than one documentation file coming with a package.
The administrator will probably install additional packages in the local
texmf tree. The corresponding documentation can be made accessible by an
additional database $TEXMFLOCAL/texdoctk/texdoctk-local.dat. Further-
more, individual users possibly install additional packages in an texmf
subdirectory of their $HOME, for which they can make an individual data-
base themselves as $TEXMFHOME/texdoctk/texdoctk-pers.dat. After creating
such files, texhash must be executed.
Both types of databases must have the same structure as the system data-
base, although they need (and should) not include all its sections if
there are no additional entries. For example, if the the package foo is
added to the local tree such that its documentation file is ($TEXMFLO-
CAL)/doc/latex/foo/foo.dvi and it is decided that it fits best into the
existing category Graphics, texdoctk-local.dat would look like this:
@Graphics
foo;Create bells and whistles (foo);latex/foo/foo.dvi;decoration
The entry for foo will then be appended to the list of entries in the
Graphics category. The 18th button can be activated in the same way, but
using a new category name; possible entries at the beginning of the
database which have not been assigned to a category will be assigned to
the default Miscellaneous, making the 18th button active with that la-
bel. Note that you cannot have more than 18 categories; if there are
more, only the one defined last will appear and be used.
If the documentation is included in the .sty file instead of a proper
documentation file, the optional keywords should start with -?- directly
after the semicolon, where ? is 0, 1, 2 or 3; these are flags which in-
dicate in which part of the .sty the instructions are placed and should
help texdoctk to extract the documentation from the style and present it
without the code, which would normally be of little use.
0 no specific place, scattered between the code
1 at end, behind \endinput; some .sty files have well-organized
documentation behind the end of the actual code, where TeX
doesn't see it upon compilation
2 at beginning, terminated by %%%%%%; in some other cases, some us-
age information is at the beginning of the .sty as a comment ter-
minated by a line full of %
3 as 2, but with a blank line as termination
See the system database for plenty of examples.
FILES
$TEXMFMAIN/texdoctk/texdocrc.defaults system-wide configuration file
~/.texdocrc (optional) personal configuration file; can also be created
with the Settings menu
$TEXMFMAIN/texdoctk/texdoctk.dat default database file for documenta-
tion files of the distribution
$TEXMFLOCAL/texdoctk/texdoctk-local.dat (optional) local database file
for documentation files
$TEXMFHOME/texdoctk/texdoctk-pers.dat (optional) personal database file
of individual users for documentation files
BUGS
Widget placement in topic toplevels becomes ugly when the toplevel is
stretched or shrunk.
The font in the frame labels of the Settings menu are not forced to the
default font; this will become visible e.g. at hi-res screens, where the
label font is not scaled up.
Netscape and Mozilla error output will be written to stderr even if the
quiet mode was set.
AUTHOR
texdoctk was written by Thomas Ruedas <tr@geol.ku.dk>.
This manual page was originally written by Adrian Bunk <bunk@fs.tum.de>
for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). It is now
maintained by Thomas Ruedas.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 2000-2004 Thomas Ruedas
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
TEXDOCTK(1)
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