Monday, January 7, 2008

SEEing LaTeX 25: Putting Things in Order

As noted below, the entries in the LaTeX mode menu for SubEthaEdit need to be put into a sensible order. After some thinking, I decided that there are really three groups of scripts: scripts for interacting with the LaTeX system, scripts for simplifying typing, and a script for interacting with the LaTeX mode itself.

Ideally, we'd put the three into groups divided by a horizontal rule. Unfortunately, SEE does not (yet) allow dividing lines to be inserted into the menu. Regardless, let's organize the scripts into the three groups, and - with one exception- just alphabetize within the groups. The exception is for the "Typeset and View" menu item; it strikes me as natural to put that first in the list.

End result is a menu ordered as:

Typeset and View
Clean Up Auxiliary Files
Run BibTeX
View

Complete Citation
Inline Math
Insert Environment...
Un/Comment Selected Lines

Customize Mode...

Although I've broken the groups apart with spacing, they'll just run together in the menu. Perhaps a later version of SEE will allow some more structure to be added.

One final change is that I've renamed the "Mode Environment..." menu item to "Customize Mode...". The two distinct meanings of "environment" struck me as confusing, and "Insert Environment..." is simply too appropriate for LaTeX to change.

I'll add another entry to the menu as soon as possible. It will go into the third group, with a title something like "Mode Help". I still have to write the mode help, first.

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