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List of LaTeX Editors/IDEs includes many text editors and IDEs, and even though Atom is present, I did not find anything relevant about Microsoft's Visual Studio Code. Is it also a viable option to work with LaTeX code, or rather not? What extensions/tweaks are essential based on your experience?

Update: List of LaTeX Editors/IDEs has been finally populated with VSCode, so please do check out that post first.

andselisk
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2 Answers2

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See extensions on the Visual Studio Marketplace.

LaTeX Workshop (should be the first result in search) is an extension for VS Code aiming to provide all-in-one features and utilities for LaTeX typesetting with Visual Studio Code.

I don't use Visual Studio Code. I have no experience.

GiuTeX
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Neelix
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I stumbled upon this question right now. I have been extensively using Emacs+AucTeX for the last 4 years and switched to VSCode in September. I am doing extremely fine with the LaTeX Workshop extension and I think is a viable replacement for my previous toolkit.

With respect to Emacs+AucTeX, it lacks the quick navigation that could be provided with RefTeX, but it has many other pros, first of all being within an environment which is extremely friendly still being very lightweight.

So, it is totally a viable option, IMVHO.

petrux
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  • My problem with LaTeX Workshop is that SyncTeX works somewhat inconsistent when the document is modular (\include{...}) and sometimes just stops working, so I cannot quickly jump between pdf and source anymore. Also, embedded pdf viewer becomes painfully slow when it comes to render big documents with a lot of drawings in it. – andselisk Oct 05 '17 at 10:36
  • I never used emacs for writing LaTeX on a regular basis, but I'm just curious -- what made you abandone AucTeX in a favor of VSCode? – andselisk Oct 05 '17 at 10:38
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    W.r.t. the performance issues, I never had anything similar, at least not in particular with LaTeX Workshop. From time to time, you need to reload the vscode window... but it happens rarely and using every plugin. I think it is an issue of the underlying engine which still have to be fixed. The project is quite young, indeed. – petrux Oct 05 '17 at 10:48
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    DISCLAIMER: the response to the second question could sound impolite.

    Been using/loving Emacs for years. Dropped it almost totally for VS Code. Emacs require you to know a lisp dialect. Nobody learns lisp for any reason but for the sake of learning. So, mastering Emacs requires you a huge investment. Documentation, typically, is quite complex if you don't know the environment in deep (which brings back to the first point). Moreover, I don't like the extreme fragmentation of the plugins. And so on.

     – petrux Oct 05 '17 at 10:49
  • I see, thank you for detailed comment :) LaTeX Workshop is indeed developing quickly, and Microsoft is already aware of the issues with pdf viewer, I believe. +1'ed all the answers as it seems like LaTeX Workshop is indeed the best option at the moment. – andselisk Oct 05 '17 at 10:53
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    I edited the answer above. Maybe it's not that impolite. :-) – petrux Oct 05 '17 at 14:30