I realise it has been quite a while since I published the last software recommendation, mainly because I did not get much chance to explore different kinds of softwares, as I am pretty satisfied with everything I am currently using and most of them so popular that I do not need to introduce them anymore. However, I did recently find a particular software that I would like to recommend, and that is, as the title suggests, TeXMaker.
As English users can probably tell from the name, this is a LaTeX editor (maybe not exactly, as I cannot tell precisely between everything TeX). LaTeX needs no further introduction here as the most popular document preparation system, widely utilised in professional (especially technical) document writing. If you have roamed a bit around my blog, the 737 autoflight system review (unfortunately in Chinese) is prepared by LaTeX. There are hundreds, if not thousands different LaTeX editors out there, but why am I recommending this one in particular? Well, I will try to make it concise, and just list the pros and cons.
This editor has a three column GUI, and displays the structure of the document, source code of the document, and the PDF generated out of it all at once. This is very powerful and enabling you to navigate through the document fairly efficiently, especially when the document is long and the source code is longer. As to the PDF viewer, you can compare what you wrote and what has been generated. This I find particularly useful for a LaTeX learner, as this allows you to visualise stuff you did, both satisfactory and unexpected, side to side, and you can try quickly correct mistakes or make some changes to see what happens (the only way to learn programming is to code, as we say). For experienced users, this allows you to check the document and modify directly the source code, which is beyond convenient.
As can probably be observed, there are small icons in the window, and this is another good thing about this editor. You do not necessarily need to memorize all the key words of the language (all the Greek alphabet, for example), but insert control sequences by clicking on icons or use shortcuts if experienced. Again, this is super beneficial for learners. I do not mean we should not memorize the control sequences, it is just something that allows you to do advanced stuff while do not have a lot of knowledge on all the language details.
Other pros of this software includes:
- the start is super fast
- quick build is really quick (I have no idea what it did in the background, but really, really quick)
- the GUI layout is customizable – if you do not prefer the default three columns
- other useful tools, as you can find in the main menu – most of them have shortcuts
Cons of this editor:
- sometimes when building, it generates a lot of files. It is a part of LaTeX that files are generated during building, but these files that TeXMaker generate do not overwrite each other, and the working directory becomes really messy after some attempts
- the theme colour is not very attractive – I have no idea if it can be changed
- the logo is super ugly
- does not work very well with other languages than English, mainly the spelling checks (as can be seen from the screenshot, it took entire paragraphs of Chinese as a huge misspelled word)