This presentation introduces TeXworks, a simple TeX environment based on modern standards\Dash including Unicode text encoding, and PDF output by default Dash with an uncluttered interface that does not overwhelm the newcomer. It is built using cross-platform, open-source tools and libraries, so as to be available on all today’s major operating systems, with a native “look and feel” for each.
First conceived during discussions at the time of TUG’07 in San Diego, TeXworks is now widely available, being included in both TeX Live and MiKTeX for Windows, MacTeX for MacOSX, and in packages for various GNULinux, BSD, and similar systems.
Following the first “stable” release (v0.2) in September 2009, the most significant new feature added to the application is a scripting interface. This allows users to extend and enhance the basic program in several ways, both by adding custom menu commands and by providing “hook” scripts that are automatically run at specific times, such as when a file is opened or after a typesetting run finishes. We will look at examples of how TeXworks can thus be extended using any of several available scripting languages.
The TeX community is invited to participate in the ongoing development of this environment, either at the level of actual code or in any supporting area, such as document templates or interface localization.
