open pdf when opening .tex file

[ghost]

• what I'm trying to achieve: when opening a latex file, automatically open the corresponding pdf file. optionally making sublime and pdf viewer side-by-side, and close the viewer when quitting sublime.

• how: currently, I'm using two subscripts, newly_tex.py and texpdf.py to achieve that on a mac:

newly_tex.py, in effect when sublime is not running and opening latex file for the first time

import sublime, sublime_plugin,os,subprocess

def plugin_loaded():
    view = sublime.active_window().active_view()
    fs=view.file_name()
    if fs is not None and len(fs)>4:
        fnm=fs[:-4]
        fext=fs[-4:]
        fsp=fnm+".pdf"

        if fext=='.tex' and os.path.isfile(fsp):
            subprocess.Popen(("open", "-a", "/Applications/Skim.app", fsp))

texpdf.py, in effect when sublime is running

import sublime, sublime_plugin,os,subprocess

class pdfopener(sublime_plugin.EventListener):
    def on_load(self, view):
        fs=view.file_name()
        if fs is not None and len(fs)>4:
            fnm=fs[:-4]
            fext=fs[-4:]
            fsp=fnm+".pdf"

            if fext=='.tex' and os.path.isfile(fsp):
                subprocess.Popen(("open", "-a", "/Applications/Skim.app", fsp))

• mac users may also follow up with a resize script so sublime and skim sit side-by-side, just add subprocess.Popen(("open","/path/to/resized.app")), where resized.app is from:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Sublime Text"
    tell window 1
        set position to {0, 0}
        set size to {648, 826}
    end tell
end tell

tell application "Skim" to activate

try
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Skim"
        tell window 1
            set position to {648, 0}
            set size to {792, 826}
        end tell
    end tell
end try

the size/position is for 1440x900 resolution and a small dock size. adjust accordingly.

• to close the pdf viewer when quitting sublime text: I've been trying to do that in sublime but not successful. currently, I am using the following Hammerspoon script to achieve that

function appWatcher(appName, eventType, appObject)
    if (eventType == hs.application.watcher.terminated) then
        if (appName == "Sublime Text") then
            local skmapp=hs.appfinder.appFromName("Skim")
            if(skmapp ~= nil) then
                skmapp:kill()
                -- hs.alert.show("closed")
            end
        end
    end
end

-- local
lxwatcher = hs.application.watcher.new(appWatcher)
lxwatcher:start()

• problems: multi-platform, and complex projects where the file opened is e.g. a chapter of the whole project, in which case only opening the main .tex file will open the pdf.

my code may not be robust, and there may be much better way to do that. are you interested in bringing that function into latextools? Thanks!

[r-stein]

• You can just open the pdf by running sublime.active_window().run_command("view_pdf") or view.window().run_command("view_pdf"). This also works in a multi file project, if correctly configured. However you can also press C-l, v or C-l, j to open the pdf and it is automatically shown after the build. Therefore I don't really see the usecase of that.
• Positioning the pdf viewer and ST is nothing we are looking forward to do. That's way to error-prone and at least Windows remembers the window positions anyway.
• Doing something when closing Sublime Text is not that easy, so I don't see that coming.

[ig0774]

I could see a use for including the "open the corresponding PDF when the TeX file is opened" part of things, but, as @r-stein said, the other parts are probably not things we'd be looking to add.