General ⇒ PortableApp version of LaTeX editor?

[Herr Kaleun]

Hello,
I have read your explanations. Well, I will try what you described.
But is there something newer information on it?
I want to start using latex, but I have to use a portable drive.
Thanks

[Dousa]

I've been using this config for months now, and found no reason to change it.
K.r: dousa

[T3.]

I'm a heavy user of PortableApps myself. Some time ago I invested a little bit of time and I made portable versions of some apps that I use, including WinShell and LEd editors. I've made them mainly for personal use but if anybody is interested I can share them (i.e. launchers only, apps themselves are closed source).

WinShell is essentially already portable. It's enough to create a subdirectory called 'settings' in the directory with 'WinShell.exe' binary. WinShell will store its settings in this subdirectory if it exists.

LEd uses registry, so there is some more work to do, but not that much more.

In both cases I use a generic launcher that is configured with a simple .ini file.

If you also want portable TeX installation, there is howto on this site. I wanted to make a portable version of MiKTeX myself, but I never got around to it. TeXLive 2008 is out now and it should have portable launcher right out of the box (at least it was there in betas), so I will probably use that.

Cheers,

Tomek

[Dousa]

Tomek,

Thanks for the tip on WinShell settings; I will try it out.
It's the 1 missing piece in my LaTeX set-up (which I don't notice
that much, since I mostly use one and the same laptop).

K.r.: dousa

[Herr Kaleun]

OK, I tried out something, but at least I haven't got any output pdf. there is always the same f.. error: I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
But i searched all of the directories, there is really no *.fmt - file.

Use Winshell and texlife08. that is really boring, so latex becomes a scientific exam and I hate it a little bit right now.

The what I don't understand is what or who makes the configuration for portable handling without the issue of changing drive letters.
Please let my say sorry for my foolish asking, but I would like to begin with working and not stay at configuration

Thanks

[Dousa]

Herr Kaleun,

It is quite unclear to me what you've attempted to do, but I understand that you are new to LaTeX. If so, my advise would be to start learning LaTeX from a common installation rather than using this slightly more involved portable approach.

It is also unclear to me why you would need to know where pdflatex.ftm is located. When using WinShell which I'm quite happy with for more than a year now the only thing you need to know is the location of pdflatex.exe (latex/bin). When assigned to the appropriate program call, all should run smoothly.

Hope this helps,
K.g., drdousa

[T3.]

OK, I tried out something, but at least I haven't got any output pdf. there is always the same f.. error: I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
But i searched all of the directories, there is really no *.fmt - file.

Files with extension .fmt are format files. They should be auto-generated in case they are missing.

I've just dowloaded TL2008 (why do they use .lzma compression that is not supported by any standard tools? not even the latest 7z) and I can confirm the issue. Here's what pdftex spits out on its way down:

Code: Select all

...
Russian Hyphenation Patterns
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/ruhyphen.tex
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/catkoi.tex)
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/koi2t2a.tex)
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/ruhyphal.tex)
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/cyryoal.tex)
(f:/TL2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ruhyphen/hypht2.tex
! TeX capacity exceeded, sorry [pattern memory=300000].
<inserted text> ... -»8Y8 8«8Y- -«8Y8 8ş8Y- -ş8Y8
                                                  8Č8Y- -Č8Y8 8ź8Y- -ź8Y8 8¬...
l.10 ...e\S}\def\a{\lccode`Y\i\patterns{\the\L}}\y

!  ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
Transcript written on pdflatex.log.
The file pdflatex.fmt not created.

It seems that Russian hyphenation patterns are beyond TeX's capacity but at least he's sorry.

Unfortunately, I don't have the time right now to troubleshoot this any further. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I should add that used TL with supplied tl-portable.bat launcher and not the installed version but I don't think this should make any difference.

Use Winshell and texlife08. that is really boring, so latex becomes a scientific exam and I hate it a little bit right now.

The what I don't understand is what or who makes the configuration for portable handling without the issue of changing drive letters.
Please let my say sorry for my foolish asking, but I would like to begin with working and not stay at configuration

I can understand your frustration. However, keep in mind that TL2008 has been just released and there are a lot of changes in the current release as compared to the previous one. Don't complain you get cut if you go for the bleeding edge. I would suggest you try MiKTeX 2.7. It's been around for quite some time already and my experience is that it runs very smoothly.

Cheers,

Tomek

[T3.]

Update:

I discovered that environment settings from TL2007 on my system were interfering with TL2008. Removing them fixed the problem and everything compiles just fine now.

Cheers,

Tomek

[Dousa]

Tomek,

Are still thinking portable when you suggest using MiKTeX 2.7?

Cheers, drdousa

[T3.]

Are still thinking portable when you suggest using MiKTeX 2.7?

No, I meant regular installation. Portable installation is something that I would call an advanced usage. It might be quite tough to start that way.

@Herr Kaleun: you will need to provide some more information about what you've tried. As I said in my previous post, the portable launcher in TL2008 seems to work just fine (as long as there is no older version on the system that could interfere).

Cheers,

Tomek