Pidgin-Latex
Pidgin is a very nice tool, it was only lacking the ability to speak about maths …
Well, this is done, I updated the plugin initially made by Florian Schmitt, to make it work the way it should have been working …
here is the original link : http://tapas.affenbande.org/wordpress/?page_id=70
To make it work, I had to fix some bugs in pidgin, those bugfixes should now be in the mainline.
Download
Sources via SVN
The latest snapshot can be downloaded using
svn checkout svn://svn.unfreeze.net/home/svn/pidgin-latex/trunk/pidgin-latex
You can also download any of the release sources from the svn using
svn checkout svn://svn.unfreeze.net/home/svn/pidgin-latex/releases/VERSION/src
replace VERSION by the version number (0.1 0.2 0.3 …)
Sources and Binaries via HTTP
[Temporary unavailable]
The archives contains the windows binaries in the bin directory (at least from the version 0.9)
Requirements
run
- LaTeX
- Imagemagick
- pidgin (off course …)
building the sources
- pidgin development files
- make
Participate
Well, if you feel you can add some interesting code please send me a patch 
if
you found a bug, this place is the right place to add a comment, I’ll read it
and fix it as soon as I can.
TODO:
- Remove Imagemagick dependency
- Do the conversion a-synchronously, and add a filler while converting (threads)
- Write an online doc
- Send the image, not only the $$ $$ code, to the remote client using custom smileys
- Show formulas in history as well
- Add a right click : render formula on selected text
- Add a “render this formula” link in case begin/end is deactivated
- Add toggle between code and image in the chat log
- Allow the plugin to show equations even if smileys are deactivated
If you need any new feature, let me know I’ll try to see what I can do.
known bug with convert (imagemagick), if it says something like this:
Convert cmd failed, attempted to run
/usr/bin/convert -density 120×120 -trim /tmp/pidgin-latex–193523874.dvi /tmp/pidgin-latex–193523874.png
but command line returned with error:
convert: no decode delegate for this image format `/tmp/pidgin-latex–193523874.dvi’.
convert: missing an image filename `/tmp/pidgin-latex–193523874.png’.
Make sure you have the following line in your delegate.xml (/usr/lib/ImageMagick-version/config/delegate.xml) :
<delegate decode=”dvi” command=”"dvips" -q -o "%o" "%i"”/>
I’m running hardy heron and using pidgin 2.4.2, the problem is that when I try to send a formula I see rendered text but the receiver sees $$whatever$$. I don’t know why this happens.
Did you activated the smileys ? currently formulas are only rendered when smileys are activated.
the following sentence will cause the second block of “$$…$$” be not rendered:
$$\delta(X)$$ is not a invariant for $$\beta(\Delta_f)$$
OK, that’s a weird one, I’ll check it out quickly
This plugin seems not compatible with last released Pidgin 2.5
With \begin…\end blocks enabled, it is impossible to enter a matrix (the plugin removes the $$’s around \begin{pmatrix}..\end{pmatrix} which is a math-mode environment).
when I tried version 0.9 from deb package(downloaded from net). I could set something(allow begin end, and parameters for latex) in pidgin for this plugin. in version 1.2 compiled from source code, the click-settings is unavailable. I edited this config to make pidgin-latex plugin working:
~/.purple/prefs.xml the valid pard of config is:
<pref name=’latex_path’ type=’string’ value=’/usr/bin/la
<pref name=’latex_header’ type=’string’ value=’\document
<pref name=’latex_footer’ type=’string’ value=’\end{docu
<pref name=’convert_path’ type=’string’ value=’/usr/bin/
<pref name=’convert_options’ type=’string’ value=’-densi
I changed latex_options from ‘-halt-on-error’ to ”.
distro: ubuntu 8.04,
version of interesting programs:
pidgin 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1
libpurple 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.1
latex209-base 25.mar.1992-12
texlive-latex-base 2007-13
texlive-latex-recommended 2007-13
secondd try…
I hope it will help to someone, in case of any question write me over jabber.
ps. of course I add the line from reply 1.
good luck 1john2
third try…
I’m sorry i have problems with insert:-(
simple change latex_options from ‘-halt-on-error’ to ”
Has this plugin been tried with Adium? It should work, right?
OK, I see now that there’s an Adium Xtra here: http://www.adiumxtras.com/index.php?a=xtras&xtra_id=5577 (somehow not listed on the first few pages of google.nl results..)
Hey thanks for bothering. It is true, that I have problems installing your plugin under Vista 64. I am currently using the 64-bit version of ImageMagick and the MiKTeX 2.7 package for the latex.exe.
I didn’t know that there is a 64bit version of Pidgin? Where can I find it?
So I installed ImageMagick, set a symlink (C:\miktexbin\latex.exe) to the latex.exe-Directory (due to blanks in the path) and configured the plugin.
I either got an error like “PNG output not found” or Pidgin crashed without any error message.
[...] installiert, MiKTeX sowieso drauf, das Plugin pidgin-latex heruntergeladen und die beiligende pidgin-latex.dll in mein Pidgin-Plugins-Verzeichnis [...]