latex-makefile should generate PDFs using pdflatex

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It would be much better if latex-makefile generated PDF files using 
pdflatex. I saw the comments in the code, however there are actually a 
number of advantages in using pdflatex that outweight some advantages of 
generating DVI first.

- Converting to PDF from DVI degrades quality, and make it impossible to 
use new features.
- PDF has a number of features like annotations, hyperlinks, etc
- Pdftex supports icrotypography.
- PDF graphics supports true transparency.
- PDF is much more supported in other platforms, like mac os and windows.
- Using type1 fonts, the on-screen quality of PDFs are much better than any 
DVI or PS viewer. Even graphics are better.
- Printing from PDF is much more reliable. I had countless problems when 
printing postscripts from other people, but I have never had a problem with 
PDF.
- etc...

Please support pdflatex. I think that using pdflatex alone would be enough. 
But at the very least, latex-makefile should support specifying pdflatex as 
an option, say:
make USE=pdflatex

Original issue reported on code.google.com by nilton.v...@gmail.com on 12 Jan 2010 at 10:47

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Original comment by shiblon on 13 Jan 2010 at 2:14

• Changed state: Duplicate
• Added labels: Priority-Low, Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Priority-Medium, Type-Defect

[GoogleCodeExporter]

pdflatex is now supported.  Please see r26679dd06711 or version 2.2.0-alpha1 
for the 
version of the makefile that supports it.   There are probably bugs, but now 
we're 
heading the right way :)

Original comment by shiblon on 9 Mar 2010 at 8:26

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Nice, thanks! I got this error:

sort: string comparison failed: Illegal byte sequence
sort: Set LC_ALL='C' to work around the problem.

It seems to happen when processing the .aux file. When this fails, the 
kpsewhich, 
which is run right after also fails with "missing argument".

My LANG is set to en_US.UTF-8, but my tex files are encoded using latin1, so 
that 
must be the reason. After setting LC_ALL=C it worked, but I think it should be 
set 
and exported from the Makefile, so that it's immune to any locale setting from 
the 
user.

I can open another issue, if you prefer.

Thanks!

Original comment by nil...@google.com on 11 Mar 2010 at 1:59

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Can you send me the offending .aux file as an attachment to a new issue?

Original comment by shiblon on 11 Mar 2010 at 2:35