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Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

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Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#61

Post by pseut »

Just tested this out with a 150 page document split across several folders; it compiled quickly and I really like the way you display the logs and warnings. Looks great! And I really appreciate your making it opensource.

Integrating this with github a la travis-ci would be great, obviously one would need to be able to make commits to the repository too; I'm not sure if it would be great enough that it would induce people to start paying for the service if they weren't already, though... although I'd sure like it.

I'm not sure what sort of use-cases you are seeing already, but this seems most useful to me personally for last-minute edits to coauthored papers & grant proposals right before submission. Nailing down the final version can be a real pain in the ass.

A few other minor observations:

* uploading a zip file didn't work, but I'm on an old version of RHEL and made the zip with Ark, so... who knows

* after accidentally drag and dropping a bunch of .bbl, .log, .toc (etc) files, I didn't see a way to delete more than one file at a time, or how to undo a file deletion.

* I also couldn't figure out how to move a file from a subdirectory to the top level directory

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#62

Post by anonymouz »

RA_Fisher wrote: post #49

My wife started out with www.writelatex.com to write her dissertation. The auto-compilation really slows down once you get beyond 30 or so pages. Also they don't have Git integration either, which was a deal breaker for my wife. She's since moved to using RStudio locally + Git. She says, "If you have Git integration, the auto-compilation feature would get me back from RStudio." We've also thought about using Grunt to…

Check out latexmk. With it's -pvc option it has continuous preview (=auto-compilation).

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#63

Post by hootener »

thearn4 wrote: post #54
hootener wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great work, James. I think I'll fork this code and give it look-see. I manage the dissertation/thesis template for my department on github. The assembly and dissemination of this template is a purely student-run effort. Typically the task of managing it gets passed to a new student when the previous manager graduates. The problem I've found with managing it this way is that I'll invariably get a slew of emails from s…

> The assembly and dissemination of this template is a purely student-run effort. Typically the task of managing it gets passed to a new student when the previous manager graduates. This was the unwritten ritual at my department when I was in graduate school too. But no one there really used VCS. Who knows how long that thing had been passed around and tweaked.

It's extremely rare to get a student to fork and make pull requests to this template on github, even more version control savvy CS students.

Of all the students I've had email me with problems, a vast majority just grab the repo as a zip and never contribute back. Bummer.

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#64

Post by hootener »

grittathh wrote: post #60

Thank you for open-sourcing this! At the moment I'm using sharelatex to keep a version of all my equations "alive" since every time someone tries to resave my word documents, the equations become rendered to images. Unfortunately for me, Latex hasn't gained traction in our department. I think the main barriers to entry, for our lab at least, are: 1) Local installation is more difficult than installing Word. Sharelate…

> Word's comment and review tracking system is more intuitive.

This. The first person that makes a LaTeX comment and track changes system as intuitive as Word's can have all my money. No, the comment and todo LaTeX packages don't count. There's just too much resistance in getting someone to go through the LaTeX install process just to use packages in a syntax they don't want to take the time to learn.

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#65

Post by infruset »

subdane wrote: post #56
infruset wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for a great product. We have been using it in my university to take collective notes during winter schools, it's been incredibly helpful! Basically, we are able to produce at the end of the conference a pdf with all the course notes, illustrations and links; it's like writing the book in real time.

Whoa hey! I've been looking for something like this! Do you have any examples online of your group-created notes?

I do, however the issue is I had to make them publicly editable. If I post the link on HN, I'm worried about what would happen.. Do you want to see the sharelatex document, or would a pdf suffice?

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#67

Post by imroot »

I'm really excited by this. I've been a big fan of ShareLaTeX and teach a LaTeX class at my local Hackerspace for EE/CE students at the Universities near Cincinnati and I always use ShareLaTeX in our class as an easy way of getting started without needing to install TeXLive on your system. This allows me to run our own version of the service at the Hackerspace -- nothing sucks more than trying to teach an online class when 25 Engineering-heavy students are using the 5M Down Internet connection...

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#68

Post by stevejb »

This is fantastic! I am planning on showing this to my undergraduate students, because 1) it will help them be more professional in the long run, and 2) I am incredibly sick of trying to read their handwriting and inconsistent documents.

I am wondering, what would be the best way to have students create accounts and have their accounts be populated with templates for all of the homework assignments?

I am really excited by this announcement. I hope that it leads to even more success!

Re: Show HN: We've open-sourced our bootstrapped startup, ShareLaTeX

#70

Post by beck5 »

pseut wrote: post #61

Just tested this out with a 150 page document split across several folders; it compiled quickly and I really like the way you display the logs and warnings. Looks great! And I really appreciate your making it opensource. Integrating this with github a la travis-ci would be great, obviously one would need to be able to make commits to the repository too; I'm not sure if it would be great enough that it would induce pe…

we have spent a lot of time working on our compiler, it is good fast!

We currently have a internal jenkins ci server, we should make the build status available some how. Although we are militant that builds are always green.

The zip sounds unusual, it should work.... The drag and drop stuff is not great, we really need another person to join the team and spend some time on our front end (plug, remote welcome).

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