General ⇒ TeXnicCenter 2 alpha 3 (build 1118) - Colours

[dub]

First off would like to say I like the new alpha version and think its great. I look forward to the release of 2.0 stable (or even beta if that comes first)

Just a quick query, I did a search and couldn't find how to fix.

I was wondering how to change the colours of the brackets (), [], and math type symbols _, +, ^ etc.

I've attached a mock example below. The red and purple brackets/math operators are hard to read and I can't figure out how to change them. As far as I can see, there is no appropriate field to change in Tools -> Options -> Text Format



On a side note, I agree with some other posts and think that the build/compile time in TeXnicCenter is slower than it should be (I've compared against running pdflatex in the command line and TeXnicCenter is noticably slower.)

[Sergiu]

Those colors are hard coded at the moment and will be configurable in one of the next releases.

[..] On a side note, I agree with some other posts and think that the build/compile time in TeXnicCenter is slower than it should be (I've compared against running pdflatex in the command line and TeXnicCenter is noticably slower.)

There is certainly a minor difference between invoking pdflatex from the command-line and running the compiler using TeXnicCenter which parses its output line by line. However, you should clarify what noticeable means. Is the difference one second, two or ten minutes?

[dub]

Thanks for the response about the colours.

In terms of noticeable, it depends. I can't tell the difference in day to day use with usual compilation of mathematical articles intended for paper submission. Ballpark figure is around 2 seconds for both TeXnicCenter and the command line.

Where it was noticeable is when I compile my PhD Thesis which has 20 sub latex files all in \include statements and quite a heavy class file to deal with. In this instance, TeXnicCenter takes about 15 seconds. The command line takes around 7 seconds.

[Sergiu]

How many times have you measured the run-time and how exactly?

TeXnicCenter neither cares about class files nor about \includes when compiling. The stated difference sounds pretty much exaggerated to me, unless your TeX documents emit hundreds of warnings or overfull box messages.

[Montag]

Well, this is clearly off-topic, but the compiling process isn't directly TXC-related, isn't it? (honestly, isn't it )

But yes, with no float environments in a document, I too encountered compiling times from about one minute. But the catch is, sometimes, when you are on a job and your orders are to copy the layout of a word document into a LaTeX document, you're effed.
And if it's a document with lots of pictures and tables, you really can get a new cup of coffee while LaTeX/pdflatex is running.

[dub]

How many times have you measured the run-time and how exactly?

TeXnicCenter neither cares about class files nor about \includes when compiling. The stated difference sounds pretty much exaggerated to me, unless your TeX documents emit hundreds of warnings or overfull box messages.

Must admit, it was a very low tech way of measuring that I used, I used my wristwatch and hit the build button. Measured it twice with the same results.

My PhD thesis currently has 216 Overfull Bad Boxes and 29 warnings. They must be the culprit? I'm assuming there is no way to suppress the latex output of such things but that is off topic.

[Sergiu]

A simple inclusion of the microtype package may fix many of the over/underfull boxes, particularly if you use pdflatex.

[Tino Weinkauf]

TeXnicCenter neither cares about class files nor about \includes when compiling. The stated difference sounds pretty much exaggerated to me, unless your TeX documents emit hundreds of warnings or overfull box messages.

My PhD thesis currently has 216 Overfull Bad Boxes and 29 warnings. They must be the culprit? I'm assuming there is no way to suppress the latex output of such things but that is off topic.

Hi,

I just did the same with my thesis. It takes 16 seconds in TXC and 17 seconds on the command line. And I am not surprised by this result at all. First off, I have a dual core machine. TXC starts pdflatex in a separate process - so that takes one core. TXC parses its output in a separate thread - so that takes up 50% of the second core. On the command line, pdflatex and output share a core - at least that's how it looked like. Hence, TXC is a bit faster than the command line.

Now, of course, if the document contains lots of errors/warnings/bad boxes, then TXC has to parse a lot and mark them in the UI. This takes its time. It may be so much, that it uses the full capacity of the second core. In this case, parsing (TXC) might get slower than compiling (pdflatex) and then the compiling process has to wait a bit.

I guess, we will have a look at this issue some day, but not this summer.

Best, Tino.