Latex

by Bob Mccoy, 8/22

I’m starting an article about Latex, using the Xelatex article template. I’m practicing using Latex, by using Latex.

I originally installed Latex by installing Kile. It seems to be working. I’m trying to use the Xelatex template and Kile is complaining that I don’t have everything installed right. It created an xltxtra.sty file with a lot of information about xelatex.

I finally got it working . It turned out to be… I’m not sure what the problem was. I just tried a lot of different things and it is finally working. It might be that I am not trying to use xelatex. I’m not sure.

That’s it. I have some work to do to get Kile configured to use xltxtra package. Its fairly important because, that package enables you to have a lot of control over font selection.

1 Writing Stories

I’m just going to start writing this article. It will be a story for the website. I just noticed that saving my work updates the PDF display.

Learning how to use Latex is going to be a big project. I’ve learned there is a version of Latex called Luatex. I am interested in learning that because Neovim uses the programming language Lua for its configuration. So, I can learn Lua and learn how to use it in all of my Linux configuration files and my Latex document production in Kile.

It’s also going to be interesting discovering how Kile and Latex interact with the website and WordPress’ Gutenberg Block Editor.

When I first started this Latex writing project, I thought how can entering all this Latex syntax make writing easier. I have learned that it takes a minute to set a document up and then, its just like writing in any writing editor. And if you save your setup, which is exceedingly easy to do. Starting a new story will be very quick and easy.

2 Beginning

\documentclass[11pt, letterpaper]{article}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
%\usepackage{xltxtra}


\title{Latex}
\author{Bob Mccoy}
\date{8/22}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

This is everything I have entered before the beginning of the story. \documentclass sets up the document. There are a variety of classes, like report, letter, book or Beamer, which is a presentation format, like Calligra Stage.

Okay, after some trial and error, and thanks to stackoverflow, I’ve figured out that a backslash, followed by the text textbackslash, like this: \textbackslash, is the escape sequence for a backslash. # $ % & ̃ ˆ { } are all special characters in Latex. You have to escape each one in any text you write. A \ works for most of them. For ˆ, use \ˆ{}. For tilde ~, use \ ̃{}. Just like that.

I was unable to use the … It actually cut the document off, from that point in the text forward. I just copied the rest of the story and pasted it in and then typed the three dots into the Gutenberg editor.

The best way to learn Latex is to write everything in Latex. That’s what I’m doing. I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that you can export Latex as HTML. Just like any skill, you will be slow and clumsy at first. You will eventually make yourself a high performance writer using Latex.

This article will be a place for me to write about what I’m learning, which will help me learn how to write using Latex. I learn new details as I go, like changing the font and learn how to write for the website using Latex.

3 Review

So, I created those first two sections using Kile and Latex. The whole process, other than the writing itself, has been a struggle. I’ll keep the post. It is a good example of the process of learning how to use your tools by trial and error. It was not easy getting the Latex document transferred into the Gutenberg editor. I obviously have some research to do.

I am a slow learner. Part of my problem is, I’m trying to learn a lot of complicated computer science, all at the same time. I’m currently working on learning the programming language Lua, for programming the configuration files for my computer and for document production using LuaTex. I’m also trying to learn how to use Kile and Latex as my default writing tools. Plus, I’m learning how to use Bluehost, WordPress and Kadence to build websites.

I have a plan I am working on. I’ve got homeoffice.studio looking pretty decent. I have some content. I’m planning on creating two additional websites. One about personal recovery and another one about one world unity. I’ll split the content up, so I can focus on one narrow topic on the each website.

Building two new websites will be good experience. It will help me learn about Bluehost and working with the cpanel and all that complicated setting up domain names and websites and stuff like that, which you only do rarely, whenever you set up a new website, and then, by the time you start another new website, you forget how to do it.

You can follow my example. Building your own home office based business is hard work. Building websites is hard work. It is complicated. Read a lot. Read books. Read online documentation. Watch videos about how to do things. You have to love learning if you want to follow my example, because that is what I do. I read and learn and fumble around in Linux and the Internet, for almost 20 years now. I get better and better. I started building websites years ago. I’m still learning. I’m on the verge of making myself a legitimate computer programmer.

The sooner you start doing this, the sooner you will be a legitimate computer programmer, who can earn a living programming computers and building websites.