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I've created a sort of a template for a Ph.D. thesis at my faculty (a document class, a main thesis.tex file and some dummy content). The faculty's Linux server doesn't have a full TeX distro (e.g. no etoolbox) so I can't test it there. My template compiles nicely with MiKTeX 2.9 and culmus (necessary for the Hebrew).

I've read the answers here about online LaTeX compilation. I've tried a couple of these out, some with no positive results, some with partially positive results. ScribTeX was the closest I got, and it still gave out a lot of warnings and errors.

I'm pretty sure I'm not using any strange MiKTeX quirks or anything - although I am using some known workarounds for issues relating to Hebrew (search the tag and you'll see some).

Anyway, where could I test my template other than installing Linux+TeXLive on a computer of my own?

For anyone interested: The template zip file.

Notes:

  • It's useful if I can tell people "you can test/compile at place XXX" rather than just "I've tested it."
  • If there's a place with shell access which allows this, that would be great, although I guess this is unlikely to be available.
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einpoklum
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  • What would be useful here is the log output you get from ScribTeX. I suspect you will be getting package version/availability issues, but without the log cannot tell. – Joseph Wright Apr 17 '12 at 09:43
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    You can of course install tex packages locally on your faculty linux server. Every user has a local texmf tree, you can install etoolbox there and it will work fine. – Roelof Spijker Apr 17 '12 at 09:45
  • @RoelofSpijker: It seems the Linux distro there has teTeX installed. The LaTeX2e date is 2003/12/01 and the Babel is 3.8d. – einpoklum Apr 17 '12 at 10:10
  • @cmhughes: It's tested with Miktex, I don't need another version. Basically I want to be able to say it works with TeXLive. – einpoklum Apr 17 '12 at 10:14
  • The first error I see on ScribTeX is that \AtEndEnvironment is undefined, which says a package version issue to me. I get lots more issues, including some font ones (TeX Live does not have 'non-free' fonts, MiKTeX has a few). I'd suggest you work upward from a very small example, adding items and compiling, to find what will and what will not work. With material for use by others you have to be very cautious about package availability/versions. (Reading the log, ScribTeX uses TL2009, so you might want to grab an archive copy and use it for local testing.) – Joseph Wright Apr 17 '12 at 10:19
  • @JosephWright: Unfortunately I probably won't have the time to do this for all sorts of personal reasons. I suppose that's sound advice. About fonts: It's because of the lack of Hebrew fonts. Beyond that I don't use anything special. – einpoklum Apr 17 '12 at 10:28
  • On TL 2011 (Windows), the first error I get is for jerus10.mf, which is not a standard TeX font (googling led me to this discussion and a download page). I'd imagine there's a better way with XeTeX to handle the Hebrew alphabet, but I have little direct experience with that. – Mike Renfro Apr 17 '12 at 13:33
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    Also, teTeX was abandoned nearly 6 years ago. I have some old Linux installations, but nothing that far out of date. The administrators really ought to update that to TeX Live at this point. – Mike Renfro Apr 17 '12 at 13:36

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I'd suggest you work upward from a very small example, adding items and compiling, to find what will and what will not work. With material for use by others you have to be very cautious about package availability/versions.

In terms of testing on different systems, MiKTeX and TeX Live have differing policies on 'non-free' fonts, so it's important to test both. At the same time, you might want to have 'archival' versions of different TeX systems installed. It's possible to have more than one MiKTeX and more than one TeX Live installed in parallel: all that is needed to change the 'live' system is to alter the system path. Of course, that can get quite complicated quite quickly. If you are targeting a known system (such as a corporate/university installation. an online service such as ScribTeX or even a clearly defined version of MiKTeX/TeX Live) then it makes most sense to have that set up and test using it.

Joseph Wright
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