TEXDOCTK(1)TEXDOCTK(1)NAMEtexdoctk - GUI for easier access of TeX package and program documenta‐
tions
SYNOPSIStexdoctk -[aq]
DESCRIPTIONtexdoctk 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
different 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);
default 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 $PAGER.
If you want to print the documentations, you will need convert‐
ers to turn non-PS files into PostScript. Here are some sugges‐
tions:
dvi->ps: dvips (is part of teTeX) (http://www.radical‐
eye.com/dvips.html)
pdf->ps: pdf2ps (http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost) or Acrobat
Reader (http://www.adobe.com)
html->ps: html2ps (http://user.it.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html)
plain text->ps: a2ps (http://www-inf.enst.fr/~demaille/a2ps/)
The html->ps and text->ps converter menus for switching on/off
output redirect. This is due to the fact that some converters
do not write their output into a file but to stdout by default,
so a redirect is needed, e.g. a2ps myfile.txt >myfile.ps
The system-wide configuration file is ($TEXMFMAIN)/texdoctk/tex‐
docrc.defaults and should only be writable by the administrator of the
installation 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
begins 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 dis‐
played 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 different 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 accessi‐
ble by an additional database $TEXMFLOCAL/texdoctk/texdoctk-local.dat.
Furthermore, individual users possibly install additional packages in
an texmf subdirectory of their $HOME, for which they can make an indi‐
vidual database themselves as $TEXMFHOME/texdoctk/texdoctk-pers.dat.
After creating such files, texhash must be executed.
Both types of databases must have the same structure as the system
database, although they need (and should) not include all its sections
if there are no additional entries. For example, if the the package foo
is added to the local tree such that its documentation file is ($TEXM‐
FLOCAL)/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
label. 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 indicate 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
usage information is at the beginning of the .sty as a comment
terminated 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 cre‐
ated 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.
AUTHORtexdoctk 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)
