Hacker News Reader

Comment by tajd | Hacker News Reader

Please could it be possible to view a snippet - just to get an idea of how you do this. Cheers!

I do something similar, here's my Makefile -- I have scripts that build figures in a separate directory, /figures. I'm sure it could be terser, but it does the job for me.

    texfiles = acronyms.tex analytical_mecs_procedure.tex analytical_mecs.tex \
               anderson_old.tex background.tex chaincap.tex \
               conclusions.tex cvici.tex gold_chain_test.tex introduction.tex \
               main.tex mcci_manual.tex methods.tex moljunc.tex \
               tb_sum_test.tex times_procedure.tex tm_mcci_workflow.tex tmo.tex \
               vici_intro.tex
 
    # dynamically generated figures
 
 
    all: main.pdf
 
    main.pdf: $(texfiles) figures/junction_occupations.pdf figures/overlaps_barplot.pdf \
                          figures/transmission_comparison.pdf \
                          figures/wigner_distributions.pdf
        pdflatex main.tex && bibtex main && pdflatex main.tex && pdflatex main.tex
 
    figures/junction_occupations.pdf: figures/junction_occupations.hs
        ghc --make figures/junction_occupations.hs
        figures/junction_occupations -w 800 -h 400 -o figures/junction_occupations.svg
        inkscape -D -A figures/junction_occupations.pdf figures/junction_occupations.svg 
 
    figures/overlaps_barplot.pdf: figures/overlaps_barplot.py
        python figures/overlaps_barplot.py
 
    figures/transmission_comparison.pdf: figures/transmission_comparison.py
        python figures/transmission_comparison.py
 
    figures/wigner_distributions.pdf: figures/wigner_distributions.py
        python figures/transmission_comparison.py
 
    clean:
        rm *.log *.aux *.blg *.bbl *.dvi main.pdf

  figures/%.pdf: figures/%.py
      python $<

I noticed that you have some file dependencies not encoded in the targets. Also, you might like reading up on Automatic Variables ($@, $^, $<, etc). Anyway, just for fun I tried rewriting your script in a way that should Just Work a little better.

    texfiles    = $(wildcard *.tex)

    figures_ink = figures/junction_occupations.pdf
    figures_py  = figures/overlaps_barplot.pdf        \
                  figures/transmission_comparison.pdf \
                  figures/wigner_distributions.pdf
    figures     = $(figures_ink) $(figures_py)


    main.pdf: main.tex $(texfiles) $(figures)
        pdflatex $<
        bibtex $(<:*.tex=*)
        pdflatex $<
        pdflatex $<

    figures/junction_occupations: %: %.hs
        ghc --make $^

    figures/junction_occupations.svg: figures/junction_occupations
        $< -w 800 -h 400 -o $@

    $(figures_ink): %.pdf: %.svg
        inkscape -D -A $@ $^

    $(figures_py): %.pdf: %.py
        python $^

    clean:
        rm *.log *.aux *.blg *.bbl *.dvi main.pdf

Yes, I don't think I'll get a chance to dig out my Makefile. But my Makefile was very much like this.

Check out latexmk: it keeps track of having to run bibtex etc, and runs latex "enough times" so that all equation refs etc have stabilised. (Latexmk -pdf to build a pdf, default is dvi.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com