D##(see the SpecSpec for an explanation)
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Launchpad entry: none yet
Packages affected:
Summary
Many Linux users use Tex/LaTeX. Many users would like a nice GUI. Unfortunately there are no GUI Latex Editors supported in main except auctex which is geared toward Emacs users. If you use vi, nano, gedit, etc... then you are not left with a supported GUI Latex editor. Texmaker is a modern GUI Latex Editor which is highly configurable and does not desktop specific like KILE which requires KDE. I will help with the packaging.
Use cases
Bill needs a Latex Editor. He wants a graphical one since he is not well versed with a terminal. Furthermore, he knows nothing about emacs. Texmaker works well for him.
Sheela does not want all the KDE or Gnome stuff on her xfce setup since she runs on older hardware. Texmaker is perfect for it is Desktop independent.
Rachel wants a GUI LaTeX editor where she can still use all her hot keys with. She also wants her editor to build and display using exactly the build and pdf viewer of her choice. Texmaker is perfect for her.
Scope
I maintain Texmaker for Debian so I could be of assistance. Either I could have upload rights for this one package or I could build packages and hand them off to someone with main upload privileges.
Availability
Texmaker has been in Universe since Dapper. Texmaker builds fine on amd64, i386, ia64, powerpc, and sparc.
Rational
(See Above). But to more clearly state the case:
- Many people would enjoy a graphical LaTeX editor which is fully supported in main.
- The current selection(auctex) is geared to people who use emacs which is only a small percentage of Ubuntu users.
- Temaker has the advantage of not being desktop dependant.(Ie.. not specific to gnome, kde, xfce,etc...) Other popular GUI LaTeX editors require a certain desktop.(Ie.. Kile requires KDE) This allows Ubuntu to support on GUI Latex editor which works well on all desktop setups
- Texmaker is highly configurable. It allows the user to use many hot keys, and even how Tex/LaTex is built and displayed is completely configurable in the nice GUI menus.
- Texmaker comes with many "wizards" which help the user create initial LaTeX templates and allow the user to easily create advanced things such as arrays right in the user friendly wizard.
- Texmaker is fast, and does not suck up a huge amount of memory.
- Texmaker has very good documantation in the help menu which not only helps the user run Texmaker but also gives LaTeX help in general.
- Texmaker has the majority of the most common used symbols in a side bar making it easy to select the appropriate symbol without having to have them all memorized.
- Texmaker really looks pretty. Honestly, Texmaker is the prettiest of all the GUI Latex editors.
Security
Texmaker has been well maintained with new releases every about six months or so. There have been no security reports against Texmaker on any of these websites:
Quality Assurance
- Texmaker works right away. The default settings ask for only packages which are suggested such as xpdf, but you can quickly and easily configure Texmaker to use the applications you prefer.
- There are no bugs reported against texmaker, nor have there ever been any bugs that have not been quickly fixed by MOTU to my knowlege.
Texmaker is almost completely copied straight from Debian. There are practically no changes to Debian's version of the package. Texmaker has zero bugs in Debian and builds fine on all Debian Architectures: http://packages.qa.debian.org/t/texmaker.html.
Standards compliance
- Texmaker is compliant with all Debian standards and resides in Debian Main.(See link above)
Dependencies
All dependencies and suggested packages are in Main.