Minimize the amount of boilerplate code needed to start writing an article in Latex.
Uses the build tool SCons to automate the production and compilation of the Latex sources.
First, write your manuscript's body in a .tex file ('body.tex' in this example):
\begin{abstract}
Bla bla bla.
\end{abstract}
\section{Introduction}
Many citations using \citet{Author2012}.
...
\section{Acknowledgments}
Thank you.
Notice that there is no \begin{document}, \bibliography, \title, etc.
All of that is build automatically by the Manuscript Python class in
templates.py.
After you have your body.tex file, copy SConstruct, templates.py, and
classes to your paper's repo. Then, edit SConstruct to include the
information about your new paper. It might look something like this:
import os
from templates import Manuscript
env = Environment()
env.SetDefault(TEXMFHOME=os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], 'texmf'))
# To include the class and bibtex files in the 'classes' dir
env.Replace(TEXINPUTS='classes//:')
env.Replace(BSTINPUTS='classes//:')
builder = Manuscript(
title='My title',
author=['Me',
'My friend'],
affil=['Where we work.',
'Where only my friend works.'],
author_affil=[[0], [0, 1]],
journal='geophysics', # The journal name
heads=['Me and Friend', 'Short title'],
bibfile='references.bib')
# Make the manuscript for submission
ms = env.Command('manuscript.tex', 'body.tex', builder.build_ms)
mspdf = env.PDF(target='manuscript.pdf', source=ms)
The Manuscript class takes the information about your paper and will produce
manuscript.tex. This file will use the document class and the Latex template
for the specified journal (in this case,
Geophysics).
The author_affil field specifies which affiliations are associated with each
author. 0 means the first affiliation listed in affil, 1 the second, etc.
At the moment available templates are:
geophysics: Geophysics.gji: Geophysical Journal International
SCons will take care of producing the Latex file and then compiling it to PDf. To produce the files, run:
scons
To clean up the directory of the generated files:
scons -c
The Manuscript class also has options to build a pretty version of the
manuscript. Simply add these lines to your SConstruct and SCons will produce
both the version for submission and the pretty version:
# Make a pretty version of the paper
paper = env.Command('paper.tex', 'body.tex', builder.build_paper)
paperpdf = env.PDF(target='paper.pdf', source=paper)
You'll need a Latex distribution and also SCons.
On Ubuntu Linux you can install these by:
- using
apt-get:sudo apt-get install texlive-full scons - alternatively install SCons using
pip:pip install --egg scons
On Windows:
- MikTex is a popular Latex distribution
- You can download SCons from their official site.
- You might also need Python in order to make SCons work. A nice way to install Python is through the Anaconda distribution