I’ve been putting off writing about Scribbler for a while because it’s really difficult to put into words properly the ideas I want to convey. I’ve become very attached to my little application since its early inception, not only because of the time I’ve spent, but also for how it has helped me find my creative side. The only reason I haven’t put screenshots up yet is because I’ve been talking with a designer about making the icons, and developing the site and brand of Espresso Served Here (need to catch myself each time I write ’severed’). They guys I’ve got to do that part of the app, which is completely beyond me, are really talented and I’m getting very excited about having all the artwork finished. As soon as it is ready, I’ll start posting screenshots.
It was writing my MSc thesis that gave me the desire to write a new LaTeX editor. I decided that I needed an app that understands how people work with large documents. Specifically, people work on projects. Each of these projects can contain many source files: LaTeX source itself, images, BibTeX files and PDFs; and Scribbler knows how to handle them all. You organise your project in Scribbler just like you’d organise your iTunes or iPhoto library, while Scribbler takes care of files on your hard drive. You can make new LaTeX and BibTeX files within Scribbler itself, or simply drag-and-drop a file from any other program to add it to your project.
When writing, having Scribbler keep track of your project soon shows its advantages over keeping each document separate. To include an image in your LaTeX source, just drop it on the text and Scribbler will write the code for you. You no longer need to care where the image file is in the filesystem, why should you?
Another plus to this approach comes when writing labels and citations. As Scribbler looks after your project it knows all the \label{} keys you’ve written and will suggest them for you when you type \ref{} (for the LaTeX-uninitiated, that makes cross-referencing very, very easy). The same works for all your citations.
One of the things I always found myself doing when writing in LaTeX was editing my images so I decided to add some image-editing functionality for common tasks. Scribbler allows you to re-colour, crop, rotate and apply filters to your images, so you only need to open up Pixelmator or Photoshop when you really need to.
I’m really looking forward to showing off Scribbler to you all, and when you use it I’m sure you’ll agree that creating beautiful LaTeX documents can be done in a beautiful environment. After all, one of the reasons we all use LaTeX is because we care about how things look. I’m working really hard on some features that will blow you away, and I’ll keep-on making it better.
August 20, 2008 at 13:00 pm
Hi Jonathan, Just heard you on the Mac Developer Roundtable. I’ve just made the switch from emacs for my latex/bibtex work to BibDesk and TexShop.
I love BibDesk (and have already submitted one patch), but TexShop (and iTexMac2) are kind of lame so I’m very interested in a beautiful (lickable even?) latex application for the mac.
August 22, 2008 at 23:21 pm
I heard your talk on the developer roundtable, too. Hope that this will be an amazing LaTeX app.
Best would be to subscribe to your blog to get any news, or not?
August 22, 2008 at 23:29 pm
Hi Mark and Zettt,
Thanks for the comments and the kind words! I’ll be posting more as soon as I can so yeah subscribe to my RSS feed and you’ll be updated as soon as I post more information.
Lickable? It’s gorgeous
August 23, 2008 at 22:21 pm
I just subscribed. Hopefully there will be a testable beta out soon. How much will it cost?
August 24, 2008 at 0:37 am
Hi Zettt,
I’m hoping to have a beta ready for testing in October, if there are issues I haven’t come across then the version 1.0 will be a little after that.
As for price I’m not going to say anything at the moment. I’ll put more details up in the near future, though.
August 24, 2008 at 7:12 am
OK, thanks for the information. I’m waiting.
September 19, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hey Jonathan, we met yesterday at IPEM - thought I’d check out your site! Keep my updated on the Scribbler app, sounds like a good piece of kit!
Andy
September 19, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hi Andy,
Glad you remembered the name of the site! My Nuclear Med went fine but then the Radiotherapy was awful, he kept interrupting me and then I lost my nerve! How’d your ones go in the end?
September 19, 2008 at 22:54 pm
I love coffee so it wasn’t difficult!
Who was your examiner? My RT went OK but wasn’t amazing, DR went a bit better though, just waiting in the results now…
October 16, 2008 at 2:46 am
How’s that beta coming along? I’m writing some papers at the moment…
By the way - are you looking at any integration with BibDesk?
October 16, 2008 at 20:25 pm
Hi Mark,
It’s coming along… but a little slower than I hoped. I’ve finished at the NHS now, but that took up all my time the last couple of months, so I’ve fallen way behind my schedule. As soon as I can I’m going to get it out in beta. I just don’t want to release a product where I know that some areas need more attention
I hope that when it’s done, you’ll like what I’ve come up with.
As for BibDesk, version 1.0 won’t have integration with it as far as I can see. One of my reasons for this is being able to give the user a seamless experience when it comes to writing a LaTeX document. However, even when Scribbler is managing the bib files in the project, it’s real simple to just edit the bibliography part in BibDesk if the BibTeX editor in Scribbler doesn’t do all you need it to. As the product evolves I’ll add more integration where it’s necessary, though.
Really glad you’re staying interested with my progress, I’m working as hard as I can now. I want to be able to open up my company with a real bang.