15 Local LaTeX

ABSTRACT

If Markdown is a quick handwritten note (what we use on GitHub), $\text{LATEX}$ is a professional printing press. It is the industry standard across all academia for scientific publishing because it handles mathematics symbols, bibliographies, layouts and more automatically.

Prerequisites

• 11_unix
• 12_terminal
• 14_github

1. Why Local $\text{LATEX}$?

While tools like Overleaf exist, working locally, i.e. on your computer, gives you:

• Speed: No waiting for browser refreshes or lags
• Git Integration: Track changes to your paper just like you track changes to your code.
• Power: Avoid the compile timeout of the free version of Overleaf.

2. Installation

There are a lot of $\text{TEX}$ distributions for different operating systems. Here, we recommend installing BasicTeX (macOS) and TeX Live Small (Linux/WSL), since they are very lightweight installations saving space while keeping essential engines.

2.1 Linux & WSL (Ubuntu/Debian)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-binaries

2.2 macOS

1. Install BasicTeX and update the TeX Live Manager

brew install --cask basictex
sudo tlmgr update --self

2. Install packages: If you ever see a compilation error claiming “missing <package-name>.sty”, run the following command to install it:

sudo tlmgr install <package-name>

2.3 Editor

You can edit $\text{LATEX}$ files as regular text files from your chosen text editor (VSCode, NeoVim, …). You can also use the $\text{LATEX}$ Workshop extension, which provides auto-completion and built-in PDF viewer.

$\text{LATEX}$ Dictionary

Term	Meaning
.tex	Your source code file. This is written in $\text{TEX}$
.bib	The bibliography files. This is where you write/copy your references in Bib$\text{TEX}$.
Preamble	The top of the file where you load packages and configuration. This is the content before \begin{document}.
Compilation	The process of turning your code into a PDF.
Aux/Log files	These files are created during compilation: ignore/hide these.

4. Compile a PDF

To compile a PDF we use the pdflatex command. Normally this is what you will run

pdflatex paper.tex # Generate the PDF
bibtex paper # Link the references
pdflatex paper.tex # Load the references
pdflatex paper.tex # Finalize the layout (ToC, labels, etc)

5. Collaboration

$\text{LATEX}$ files are plain text, which makes them perfect for Git.

1. Clone & Branch: Never work directly on main.

git clone git@github.com:capibara3/<repo-name>.git
git switch -c <new-branch-name>

2. Write: Make your changes in the .tex file and compile the updated PDF

TIP

To learn how to write math and structures in $\text{LATEX}$, check out the Introduction to LaTeX tutorial on GitHub. This is not a tutorial in the documentation because it is embedded in a $\text{LATEX}$ file.

3. Commit & Push: Add only the .tex, .bib, and .pdf files. Avoid the log and out files, use .gitignore to ignore them.

.gitignore Template

# copy this to your .gitignore file
*.aux
*.log
*.out
*.toc
*.blg
*.bbl

6. Peer Review Rules

When you open a Pull request:

• Addition-only: if you are just adding text in your section, a team lead can merge it quickly just checking it complies with the paper standards.
• Modifying/Deleting: if you are changing someone else’s paragraph or equations, you must tag them as a reviewer and resolve the ‘conflict of interest’ in the comments before merging.

SUCCESS

You are now equipped to produce publication-quality documents. By keeping your $\text{LATEX}$ local and your commits clean, you make your progress and science easier to follow and to communicate with other team members and externally. Next up: 16_python_basics.