1. Make sure that you are using the latest OOoLatex macro. Their site shows the latest version as OOoLatex-4.0.0-beta-2. Since they are still in beta, it would not be suprising if there are still significant bugs in their latest version.
I realized from some of your other threads that you are running Mac OS X Snow Leopard but you are using the 2008 distribution of MacTex. Are you sure that that distribution is really compatible with Snow Leopard? Snow Leopard did not get released until fall of 2009 and we found that Apple made significant changes in how Snow Leopard runs that can break how code that runs just fine on Tiger or Leopard.
I would recommend that you install a version of MacTex and any other tools that OOoLatex depend on that were released after Snow Leopard was released before you file a bug with OOoLatex.
I very much appreciate your spending time on this. What about the disappearing figures? Is it really the case that OOLaTex is causing this also?
I don't know much about Macros in OO/NeoOffice, but it seems to me that OOLaTex passes the LaTex through a Unix tool chain to output EMF which is then attached to the image which is embedded in the odt file.
So, in theory, stuff can only get wacked when the macro is invoked, right? I could see how the image I'm working on could easily get crufted up, but if OOLaTex can do a global scramble of any image in the document, that is a serious problem.
It doesn't look like OOLaTex has moved much lately, but I don't have much choice because the complexity of the mathematical symbology is beyond what I can do in OO/NeoOffice. My only other choice, would be to move the project completely over to LaTex.
Anyway, I'm proceeding cautiously now and trying to restore everything. I just hope I don't get lose it all again. I'll certainly be more careful about not leaving Writer open for long periods, though.
I don't know much about Macros in OO/NeoOffice, but it seems to me that OOLaTex passes the LaTex through a Unix tool chain to output EMF which is then attached to the image which is embedded in the odt file.
So, in theory, stuff can only get wacked when the macro is invoked, right? I could see how the image I'm working on could easily get crufted up, but if OOLaTex can do a global scramble of any image in the document, that is a serious problem.
From my limited review of the OOoLatex code, the OOoLatex code uses several fragile steps to load an EMF image into NeoOffice:
1. The Unix toolchain part creates a temporary EMF file and then the script opens a new hidden Draw document for each temporary EMF file that it generates - This is the part where having a 2008 MacTex on Snow Leopard comes in. Any failure in the Unix toolchain in the previous step will create an empty Draw document. Given the large number of equations that you have on each page, it is possible that you are hitting the maximum number of processes allowed by the Mac OS X kernel. By default, only 266 processes can run at one time for a Mac OS X user.
2. The hidden Draw document copies itself into the system clipboard and the macro pastes what is on the system clipboard into the Writer document - This is the most fragile part of the steps that I can see as any application can clear or overwrite the system clipboard while this the macro is running. Even if the clipboard is not cleared or overwritten, pasting the clipboard content to the correct location in your Writer document can fail if the cursor is moved manually or programmatically while the macro is running.
gpas wrote:
It doesn't look like OOLaTex has moved much lately, but I don't have much choice because the complexity of the mathematical symbology is beyond what I can do in OO/NeoOffice. My only other choice, would be to move the project completely over to LaTex.
Anyway, I'm proceeding cautiously now and trying to restore everything. I just hope I don't get lose it all again. I'll certainly be more careful about not leaving Writer open for long periods, though.
If you were seeing this issue while you were editing the document, leaving the document open for a long time is not the issue and I expect that the issue will arise again. I had discarded the theory about length of time the file was open when you reported that the issue was occurring while editing the document and when I found what OOoLatex was actually doing.
Since you need to use Latex, I would recommend moving only your Latex to separate Latex files. Then, using a Latex tool, export matching .emf files directly from the Latex and manually insert the .emf files into your document using the Insert :: Picture :: From File menu.
Although it is nice to be able to put Latex directly into your .odt document and let an extension convert it to an image, I think you have found that your documents exceed the abilities of the extension.
A middle approach is to replace the simpler equations equations in your document with embedded NeoOffice Math files by using the File :: Insert :: Object menu and only move the more complex equations to separate Latex and .emf files. NeoOffice Math does not support latex, but it does support a reasonable number of mathematical symbols.
Maybe that is a good idea. Although in all fairness to OOoLatex, it is possible that your pre-Snow Leopard version of MacTex or Mac OS X's maximum running processes limit for your user is the cause. I could add that "some users have reported cases where OOoLatex running in NeoOffice fails to convert Latex to EMF properly so be sure to backup your documents frequently when using OOoLatex in NeoOffice."
Thanks for the detailed analysis. I guess I'm going to have to be careful. Once I get to a stable state, I might have to move completely over LaTex because of my math needs.
I think manually generating each separate set of math expressions and then inserting is going to be too tedious.
OOoLaTex has always been a little flaky. Sometimes when rendering LaTex it will insert the image into the wrong place--it seems to have difficulty accurately tracking the location. This is pretty much the straw that has broken the camel's back for me.
Anyway, I still like NeoOffice and am very impressed with how quickly and thoroughly you reply to issues. For this project, though, I think it may not be the best tool. No other office suite that I know of could do any better, and likely not anywhere near as well.
I think a cautionary note in the Wiki, as you indicate, would be helpful for other users.
Anyway, I still like NeoOffice and am very impressed with how quickly and thoroughly you reply to issues. For this project, though, I think it may not be the best tool. No other office suite that I know of could do any better, and likely not anywhere near as well.
Thank you for the compliment. I definitely agree with you that for handling Latex equations, neither NeoOffice nor OpenOffice.org are really the right tool for the job. The OOoLatex engineer has done a massive amount of work to try to make Latex work in both applications but as you found, Latex support is not a simple feature to add.
BTW, I added a warning to the OOoLatex section of this NeoWiki article to warn users about the problem you found.
Realistically, I think the only way to reliably edit equations in NeoOffice or OpenOffice.org is to use the built-in Math application. However, since it uses a MathML-like syntax, I understand that for many users learning MathML is just not worth the effort and it is easier to switch to a Latex-based editing tool.
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