A library to facilitate bidirectional communication between Python and TeX, with support of manipulating TeX tokens as Python objects.
Background: this library started as...
- I get annoyed at programming in TeX and want to use a proper programming language, and
- Almost all the current packages that allow programming in Python runs a separate Python pass from TeX, which requires using temporary file and
pythontex
does not work on Overleaf.
Thus, the library name is named after the second point -- the python
and tex
process are run in parallel,
bidirectional communications are supported.
Since then, the library has grown considerably, although not in a particular direction, as I add features when I need it. Occasionally (but rarely), refactors are done.
As such, I don't guarantee any particular use case for this library -- except for my own use cases.
Along the way, I added some useful features to use Python inside packages. (\pycodekpse
)
A handful of my packages are written using this library, directly or indirectly. (typstmathinput
, unicode-math-input
)
The TeX package is available on CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/pythonimmediate
The Python package is available on PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/pythonimmediate-tex/ with documentation on Read the Docs: https://pythonimmediate.readthedocs.io
Description of the TeX package follows.
Just like PerlTeX or PyLuaTeX (and unlike PythonTeX or lt3luabridge), this only requires a single run, and variables are persistent throughout the run.
Unlike PerlTeX or PyLuaTeX, there's no restriction on compiler or script required to run the code.
There's also debugging functionalities -- TeX errors results in Python traceback, and Python error results in TeX traceback. Errors in code executed with the
pycode
environment gives the correct traceback point to the Python line of code in the TeX file.For advanced users, this package allows the user to manipulate the TeX state directly from within Python, so you don't need to write a single line of TeX code.
tex/
folder contains TeX-related files. The source code of the package is in tex/pythonimmediate.sty
.
To create the documentation:
# sphinx-quickstart docs --sep -p pythonimmediate-tex -a user202729 -r '' -l en
rm docs/pythonimmediate*.rst
SPHINX_APIDOC_OPTIONS='members,show-inheritance' sphinx-apidoc --separate --full --no-toc -o docs pythonimmediate
cd docs
make html
To autobuild the documentation
cd docs
./run-sphinx-autobuild
To create a tag
git tag 0.3.0
git push --tags
not that the output directory matters, just visit the documentation at localhost:8000
.
Looks like it's not easy to write the docstrings in Markdown, see https://stackoverflow.com/q/56062402/5267751
There's some unresolved $ is not defined
issue -- there's readthedocs/readthedocs.org#9414 but it's unrelated
Maybe take a look at mkdocs/mkdocstrings later