General ⇒ PortableApp version of LaTeX editor?

[Dousa]

Hi All,

For several reasons I would like to be able to work on my LaTeX-docs from a USB-stick or Portable-HD, and this without having to install a LaTeX-editor on Windows first. (There are quite a few PCs that I may use, but for which I'm not an admin.)

Does anybody know whether there is a LaTeX-EDI that is Portable? That is, an LaTeX-EDI (like Texniccenter) that can be used on Windows for editing and building LaTeX with PDF-output, but without a prior installation. For more info on Portable applications, please visit http://portableapps.com/.

Also, if you know another approach to working with LaTeX on the road, please let me know.

Cheers, Maarten

[angelixd]

http://docs.miktex.org/faq/setup.html

I don't use Windows, so i can't tell you anything about MiKTeX, but it seems like this is your best bet. Just get whatever the contents of this disc are, and put it on your portable drive, and you're set!

[Dousa]

Just installing MikTEX (2.6) on a USB-stick does not work. The reason is that some personal preferences are stored under Documents and Settings/<user(s)>/Application Data. MikTEX Options (mo.tex) points to the relevant paths, but does not allow them to be changed. Moving the preference-settings to the USB and adding the paths in mo.tex did not work in my case.

For now the best thing seems to be to buy the DVD with MikTEX 2.6. This would allow me to use the program without installation. Perhaps this has to be combined with WinShell, which is already portable, to do the actual programming of the text to be typesetted.

Of course I hope that Christian Schenk extends his impressive work with providing a portable version of MiKTEX. I could be mistaken, but I get the impression that for him it is no big deal. It even seems he already has one.

[darckhart]

Maarten, I may not be understanding you correctly, but these are three approaches I have tried:

1) Carry around a live DVD of a texmf. Write the tex file in any text editor and compile on the machine you're at.
2) Write the tex file and ssh into a computer with the installed texmf. Upload the tex files (e.g., to your home dir), compile on that machine, download your output when it finishes.
3) Write the tex file and just wait to compile.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Dousa]

Thanks, Darckhart!

The approach I have in mind is the first you've tried, but then with the live texmf and latex-editor, e.g. WinShell, running from a USB stick.

Which live DVD with texmf do you use? I think if I have one, the rest should be a piece of cake.

Hope to hear from you again!

[darckhart]

I use the TexLive distribution available here: http://www.tug.org/texlive/acquire.html since I find that this distribution rarely gives me conflicts on both Windows and Linux.

[Dousa]

Thanks again, Darckhart, the route via Tex Live 2007 works! I did the following (without having administrator rights):

• 1. Download the .iso file

• 2. Extract the .iso file using WinRar to a 1GB USB stick

• 3. Use tlpmgui from the setuptl directory to install Tex Live onto the USB stick. (I choose the smallest installation, and made sure that both the CD/DVD directory and the TL directory are on the USB stick.)

• 4. Install WinShell from the support\winnshell directory

• 5. Finally in WinShell set the program calls (options > program call) pointing to the appropriate programs in the bin of the TL directory (with the name chosen under 3).

Of course the system is slower than usual, but it runs smoothly, and it is great to be able to run LaTeX from any USB port you have access too!

[darckhart]

haha awesome! glad that worked for you. think i'll give winshell a whirl too...

[Dousa]

Yes, it's fun! I have been working with it for the rest of the week and love it.

Winshell is about as complete as e.g. TeXnicCenter so surely worthwhile to give it a try.
N.B. If you use the USB-stick on another computer, you may have to reset WinShell's programcalls. Unfortunately this part of the set-up is stored, not in the WinShell-directory but in a user-directory of Windows. Perhaps Ingo can change this?

[darckhart]

Yes, I noticed that too. I decided to create multiple copies of the winshell.ini with the necessary path changes and a few batch files to copy and overwrite the ini per computer.