Less Annoying LaTeX

Quick and easy LaTeX typesetting for the lazy. When having a nicely-formatted document isn't a priority. (e.g. taking notes, doing assignments, making crib sheets)

For example, using LaL, you can compile a .tex file that looks like this:

Hello, world!
$x = 3$

(note the absence of nonsense like \begin{document} etc.)

How to use

There is only one file, lal.py.

To compile a .tex file "myfile.tex", run python lal.py myfile.tex.

This will generate a file myfile.pdf.

Requirements

• Python 3
• pdflatex (added to path)

Arguments

python lal.py <OPTIONS> myfile.tex

• Layouts

• -narr: Narrow
• -wide: Wide
• -2col: 2 Columns
• -3col: 3 Columns
• -2colw: 2 Columns, wide

• Options

• -noopen: Don't open the file after compilation
• -out <filename.pdf>: Specify an output filename

python lal.py -clean

• Cleans up the temporary files that come with compiling the .tex

Other Syntax

• Images: [img=test.png,350]

• Uses image "test.png" in same folder, height = 350

• Start and End Tags:

• Use to render only a part of a document.
• Start: ===START===
• End: ===END===
• Case insensitive. Any number of "=" characters 3 or more can be used on either side.
• Start tag denotes start of document. Anything preceding the start tag will not be rendered.
• End tag denotes end of document. Anything after the end tag will not be rendered.
• Unspecified behaviour if multiple start / end tags exist.

Development

Most of the logic is still pretty hacky. But it works, for most cases, as of now.