The TeX daemon

updated 28 Aug 2003

TeX takes a little while to load, but will then typeset pages very quickly. Interactive applications typically typeset lots of small items. By running TeX in daemon mode, its start-up time can be removed from the loop.

The TeX daemon works with existing TeX distributions, and on small files it is seven times quicker than batch mode. If your version of TeX has ipc (interprocess communication) enabled, the TeX daemon will be about 50 times quicker than batch mode.

Platforms

The TeX daemon is known to work under Linux, and should work on all Unix platforms. Porting to Windows will require some work, but should be perfectly possible.

Versions

The TeX daemon is still under development. So far there are three versions, and a fourth is in the works.

v0.1 provides a proof-of-concept implementation and some attractive screen-shots.
v0.2 has some improvements over v0.1.
v0.3 provides TeXpad and LaTeXpad, and does not need an IPC-enabled version of TeX.
v0.4 is under development. It is intended to provide a stable basis for TeX as a callable function.

If you are interested in the TeX daemon, we suggest you download and try out versions 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3, and see which of them provides something for you. At present they have somewhat overlapping functionality.

My present efforts are devoted to version 0.4. If you want the TeX daemon to do something, you're welcome to join in.

TeXpad and LaTeXpad

These are simple applications provided in v0.3.

TeXpad and LaTeXpad are interactive applications of the TeX daemon. The user enters material at a TeX prompt, which is then typeset and displayed in xdvi. They provide a sort of 'calculator' for (La)TeX. The response is almost instantaneous.

Screenshots

Screenshot of v0.3 TeXpad and LaTeXpad PNG format (23Kb) and GIF format (89Kb)

Two screenshots of v0.2 of Instant Preview PNG (28Kb) and PNG (20Kb).

Screenshot of v0.1 in action PNG (31Kb)

Downloads

texd-0.3.tar.gz TeX daemon, TexPad and LaTeXpad source files (31Kb)

texd-0.2.tar.gz TeX daemon and Instant Preview source files (24Kb)

texd-0.1.tar.gz TeX daemon and Instant Preview source files (24Kb)

For more information, or to report faults email us info@pytex.org.