Latex-PhD-class

This is a repository containing a latex class I used for my PhD thesis at Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris. It contains a structure using makefile and latexmk, so only the modified parts will be compiled each time. There are several modes both for compiling (accessible as options for the make command) and for latex class (accessible by specifying the options in the \documentclass command.

In the following, we are going to expand the information above and explain the use of various class options in detail.

How to Use

Requirements

A full TeX distribution is assumed. Various distributions for different operating systems (Windows, Mac, *nix) are available but TeX Live is recommended. You can install TeX from upstream (recommended; most up-to-date) or use sudo apt-get install texlive-full if you really want that. (It's generally a few years behind.)

Basic Usage

At a command prompt, run

$: make TARGET=path_to_file/{your-file}.tex

This should result in the creation of {your-file}.pdf and a locked copy locked.{your-file}.pdf

Compilation with makefile

The makefile contains the instructions to compile the whole thesis or a single chapter. It makes use of the latexmk command (you can install it, in an Ubuntu/Debian environment with the command

$: sudo apt-get install latexmk

Make Options

Indeed, the several make options are:

• all
• view
• continuos
• clear
• clearall
• force
• rebuild

Command	Description
make all or make	Compiles the default TARGET tex file.
make view	Compiles and shows the produced pdf file.
make continuous	Compiles live and updates the produced pdf file.
make clear	Compiles and removes the auxiliary files.
make clearall	Compiles and removes auxiliary files and all images and not-locked pdf.

Compile command

In a terminal one can give the following command

$: make

this will compile the default TARGET file given in .latexmkrc, i.e. main.tex.

Configuration file

The hidden file .latexmkrc contains the configurations for the working of make command.

Ubuntu/Debian vs OSX use.

As it is, the whole structure works on Linux systems with evince installed. If you wanna change the pdf viewer, you have to change the line

$pdf_previewer = 'start evince %O locked.%S';

to

$pdf_previewer = 'start your_pdf_viewer %O locked.%S';

To work in Mac OSX, you can simply write

$pdf_previewer = 'start open %O locked.%S';

LaTeX use and class options

The class comes with three options:

• debug
• draft
• externalize

The debug and draft modes are quite similar. They both print on the PDF margins, comments and labels.

The only difference is that the debug mode does not print out the TikZ images.

The externalize mode exports the TikZ images in the ./Resources/Externalised folder.

Leaving the option field empty you get a mode as in the final version of the document, without any comment printed out. Since the class is standalone, one does not have to worry about changing anything in single chapters, since the option of the main document will be taken.

Thus the advice is to always compile chapters in debug or draft mode - including comments, warnings and notes - and then compile the main at the end with no option.

Comments

A different section because there are three types of comments.

Comments will appear as side notes.

The first type of comment is a proper comment, it appears in grey and corresponds to the default behaviour of the command

\comment{This is a comment.}

or one can indicate it with the option label c.

\comment[c]{This is a comment.}

Another option is e, this indicates an error and appears in red.

\comment[e]{This is an error.}

Finally, there are warnings,

\comment[w]{This is a warning.}

They all have independent numbering sequences and they are only visible in debug or draft modes.

Credit

LaTeX

LaTeX is a fantastic typesetting program that a lot of people use these days, especially the math and computer science people in academia.

You can find out more about it here: LaTeX Project