Text.LaTeX

This module is a re-export of the Base module. You may find it shorter to import. Below you can also find a short overview of HaTeX.

Historically, this module also exported the Packages module. But, since it's more common to import the Base module and, then, only the packages you need (instead of all of them), this module has been upgraded supporting it.

For this reason, the module Text.LaTeX.Packages no longer exists.

Base module re-export

module Text.LaTeX.Base

An overview of HaTeX

HaTeX is a library that implements the LaTeX syntax for both rendering and parsing.

The LaTeX type

The core type is called LaTeX. Values of this type are always a syntactically correct piece of LaTeX code, which we call a LaTeX block. To append blocks, we use the Monoid class. Thus, the operator <> appends blocks. To generate blocks, we use functions. Basic functions are defined in the Text.LaTeX.Base.Commands module. Roughly speaking, it contains functions to generate blocks containing LaTeX commands and environments that are always defined. In the other hand, LaTeX is an instance of the IsString class. This allow us to insert LaTeX code containing simple text by just writing it as a String and enabling the OverlaodedStrings language extension.

Rendering LaTeX code

Once you have a LaTeX block built, the function render will turn it into Text. If your intention is to write the output in a file, use renderFile to write the LaTeX code output directly into that file.

Using more features

Apart from the core commands and environments, HaTeX offers more functions to generate LaTeX blocks containing more exotic things. These functions are categorized by LaTeX packages. For example, those commands and environments that come from the LaTeX babel package are under the module Text.LaTeX.Packages.Babel, and those that come from the graphicx package are under Text.LaTeX.Packages.Graphicx. Import each package individually to use them. This way, is easier to guess where to look for a particular function, and easier to detect if a particular feature is missing.

More from HaTeX

Beyond the implementation of existing LaTeX packages, HaTeX also provides some useful functions to build LaTeX code blocks from Haskell values. The Texy class allows you to pretty-print Haskell values to LaTeX blocks. This includes numbers, matrices, vectors or trees. HaTeX also features some modules dedicated to the generation of TikZ scripts (see Text.LaTeX.Packages.TikZ.Simple). Everything you need to generate LaTeX code using Haskell should be included in this library. If some feature is missing, the GitHub issue list is waiting for you https://github.com/Daniel-Diaz/HaTeX/issues.

Using monads

LaTeX blocks can also be managed by the LaTeXT monad transformer. Similar to the WriterT monad, it stores and append values from a Monoid, in this case, the Monoid of the LaTeX values. Both interfaces are fused into one under the LaTeXC class, the class of LaTeX blocks. Particular documentation of each feature can be found in the corresponding module. Further explanation of the library and its concepts can be found in the HaTeX User's Guide (https://github.com/Daniel-Diaz/hatex-guide/blob/master/README.md).

Examples

Some examples can be found in the source code, under the Examples directory. In particular, the example contained in the file simple.hs is intended to be read by new users of the library. If you have any question regarding one of the examples, there is something you want to ask about HaTeX, or for anything you would like to discuss, we have a mailing list at http://projects.haskell.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hatex.