WhizzyTeX Frequently Asked Questions

Didier Rémy

Last Modified: April 13, 2006

1 Where to find it
2 Is this a Bug?
3 Known problems
4 Using WhizzyT_EX with platex
5 Using WhizzyT_EX under Windows
6 Using Virtual Fonts with Active-DVI
7 Known bogus latex packages
- 7.1 ieee.cls [2000/01/11]

1 Where to find it

The URL is http://cristal.inria.fr/whizzytex/

The last major release is 1.3.0 and the stable version is 1.3.0

The last version of the FAQ can be found at http://cristal.inria.fr/whizzytex/FAQ.html

2 Is this a Bug?

Before reporting a bug, have you checked that the source file correctly compiles and previews with the latex, previewer and options used in WhizzyT_EX? (In recent versions of WhizzyT_EX you may see the previewer's command from Emacs using the menu View log... and selecting command.)

You may also check the latex log files (format, and latex, slice). In particular, format will show you the version of whizzytex.sty that has been loaded. Loading an old version will likely not work! (You may also check the Emacs version of whizzytex (from the Help entry of Whizzy menu).

Since the latex color package is implicitly loaded, you should also check the compatibility with this package by by explicitly including \usepackage{color} right before the \begin{document} (because whizzytex would load this package last) and checking that it still compiles with latex.

In advi mode (when option -advi is used), the advi package is also implicitly loaded. So you should then also try to latex your source with the package advi explicitly loaded before all other packages, since some errors may be indirectly due to this advi and not to WhizzyT_EX itself—then send your bug report to Active-DVI.

Also, do not forget to check your version number before repporting a bug. See the value of variable whizzytex-mode in Emacs manually or through the Emacs on-line documentation of whizzytex-mode. This version number should be identical to the one of whizzytex.sty, which is displayed on the welcoming page when starting WhizzyTeX, and also to the one of the script whizzytex, which you can check with the shell command whizzytex -version. If these three version numbers do not match, you have a broken installation, maybe a file of old version takes priority, which you can solve by deleled the old file or adjusting the corresponding PATH variable.

3 Known problems

Fixed refers to last stable version.

WhizzyT_EX uses hard links and hence does not work on file systems that do not support them, such as VFAT.
It has been reported with old versions that sometimes the cursor jumps to the end of the buffer while typing fast, and the mark is left a few characters before where the point was when the cursor jumped.

The problem should be Fixed in versions ≥ 1.3.0.

Otherwise, an (imperfect) workaround is to reduce the slicing speed e.g. by the follow setting (you may need to adjust the value):
```
        (setq whizzy-load-factor 0.1)
```
Its does not work with the x-symbol package.

The x-symbol package may now work together with WhizzyT_EX, provided you have a version of x-symbol greater than v4.3.3. However, the option Page-to-point may still not work (under x-symbol, the cursor would be inserted at the end of the buffer instead of at the current-position). Then, you may use the following alternative.

Alternatively, with (X)Emacs version 21 and above, you may set whizzy-write-annotate to nil to tell WhizzyT_EX not to use write-region-annotation-functions. The slice will be write slower, but in a way so that the x-symbol package should always be compatible with WhizzyT_EX.

You may also wish to set 'x-symbol-auto-conversion-method to 'fast.
How can a click in the advi window reposition the point in the emacs window?

First, you should be using the advi previewer. Then, check the documentation of advi, since bindings may depend on versions. This is likely to be shift-left-mouse or left-mouse.

There might also be a short-cut that temporarily rebinds shift-xxx-mouse to xxx-mouse. This can be toggled by typing e in the advi or by calling advi with the option -edit. Note that shift-midddle-click and shift-right-click (or their shortcut versions) are used for move and resize commands when WhizzyEditting.

4 Using WhizzyT_EX with platex

WhizzyT_EX has been designed to work with standard LaTeX. However, it should also work with other implementations of LaTeX, as long as they allow the creation of new formats.

As an example, to make it work with platex you can edit the script whizzytex and change some findings as follows (in the experimental version):

INITEX="platex -ini"
LATEX=platex
FORMAT=platex
BIBTEX=jbibtex
FMT=fmt

5 Using WhizzyT_EX under Windows

WhizzyT_EX is designed for Unix plateforms. However, Marciano Siniscalchi reported that it successfully worked on his Window plateform under Cygwin (1.5.5-1), using Cygwin/Xfree 4.3 and xdvi from tetex 2.0.2-13.

The following modifications to the whizzytex script are necessary:

Fix the xdvi script by replacing xdvi.bin by exec xdvi.bin on the last line of the script (as in some Linux distribs).

Fix the whizzytex script by replacing the line

        preview() {mv $WHIZZY.dvi $WHIZZY.$VIEW; }

with

        preview() {cp $WHIZZY.dvi $WHIZZY.$VIEW; rm $WHIZZY.dvi}

(Permission to rename the .wdvi file is denied while xdvi is displaying it).

Replace all occurrences of ulimit with true as ulimit is not implemented on Cygwin. Then, when WhizzyT_EX falls into a loop during latex-ing, which is possible on some input, WhizzyT_EX will not be able to get it out. (When such cases occur, you'll have to quit and restart whizzytex by hand—after your source file has been fixed.)
Replace all instances of wdvi with w.dvi (as Yap automatically adds .dvi to a file name not ending with .dvi and then complains about not finding the file).

Unfortunately, Cygwin/XFree86 is quite slow compared to XFree86 under Linux, etc. An alternative is to use a commercial X server, such as XWin32 from StarNet (www.xwin32.com). MI/X from Microimages (www.microimages.com) is another alternative, but since it is XFree86-based, it is not as fast as XWin32. Performance, even with XWin32, is still inferior to Linux.

Using `yap` instead of `xdvi` under Cygwin

Gregory Borota has reported much better performances with yap than with xdvi under Cygwin. He has written a small wrapper interface around yap to make it look like xdvi for WhizzyT_EX and patched the source of WhizzyTeX accordingly. See the README and INSTAL file coming with his whizzytex-yap-1.1.3-1.0.tgz patch, coming with absolutely no warranty.

See also the detailed installation guide written by Gunnar Hellmund.

6 Using Virtual Fonts with Active-DVI

Active-DVI does not currently handle virtual fonts (when called with virtual fonts, it usually shows a more or less blank screen). This can be fixed by expanding virtual fonts with dvicopy prior to display as explained on the Active-DVI FAQ.

In WhizzyT_EX, this can be done automatically by passing the option -dvicopy dvicopy or equivalently setting

        DVICOPY=dvicopy

in .whizzytexrc configuration file in the working directory.

7 Known bogus latex packages

7.1 ieee.cls [2000/01/11]

This package introduced a bug in the redefinition of \@xfloaf that makes it incompatible with the color package

To fix it, your must redefine it as follows:

\def\@xfloat#1#2{\ifhmode \@bsphack\@floatpenalty -\@Mii\else
    \@floatpenalty-\@Miii\fi\def\@captype{#1}\ifinner
      \@parmoderr\@floatpenalty\z@
     \else\@next\@currbox\@freelist{\@tempcnta\csname ftype@#1\endcsname
       \multiply\@tempcnta\@xxxii\advance\@tempcnta\sixt@@n
       \@tfor \@tempa :=#2\do
                        {\if\@tempa h\advance\@tempcnta \@ne\fi
                         \if\@tempa t\advance\@tempcnta \tw@\fi
                         \if\@tempa b\advance\@tempcnta 4\relax\fi
                         \if\@tempa p\advance\@tempcnta 8\relax\fi
         }\global\count\@currbox\@tempcnta}\@fltovf\fi
    \global\setbox\@currbox \color@vbox \normalcolor \vbox\bgroup
    \def\baselinestretch{1}\small\normalsize
    \hsize\columnwidth \@parboxrestore}

This document was translated from L^AT_EX by H^EV^EA.