[New package]: tectonic

[RaafatTurki]

Package name

tectonic

Package homepage

https://tectonic-typesetting.github.io/en-US/

Languages

latex

How is this package distributed?

Prebuilt binaries can be obtained from the github releases files

[williambotman]

Hello! Pull requests are always very welcomed to add new packages. If the distribution of the package is simple, the installation will most likely be so as well. See CONTRIBUTING.md and the API reference for more details! You may also use existing packages as reference.

[williamboman]

Hey @RaafatTurki! I’m struggling a bit to see how tectonic relates to Neovim. For now I only intend to support packages that have some clear connection with Neovim (LSP server, DAP server, formatter, linter).

[RaafatTurki]

@williamboman my bad, I should've explained this part earlier.

Tectonic doesn't relate directly to neovim, however texlab supports compiling latex using it.

One feature of tectonic is the auto downloading of ctan packages as needed which is very appealing since that means any user can turn their nvim into a latex editor on any environment.

With that said I can understand if packaging it isn't in scope yet.

[thanhvule0310]

This package is simple to add. However, it appears that this project's objectives do not include it. So that you may use it in cli when necessary, I believe you should install it globally.

[RaafatTurki]

Thanks to how mason works, every package installed is usable through the nvim terminal. furthermore if globalizing mason packages is desired one could always add ~/.local/share/nvim/mason/bin/ to $PATH.

On a side note I believe mason will eventually add packages that don't strictly relate to nvim simply because nvim is so modular. for instance an another package of interest is xxd, it's a hexdump utility that ships with vim and has the ability to convert its hex dump back to binary.

You can see how it could be used to essentially make vim a hex editor, and the only proper way to get this software is to either install vim or download its subtree and compile it yourself

You see how that blurs the line between what's nvim related and what's not, perhaps a Misc category is in order.

[williamboman]

however texlab supports compiling latex using it.

That's good enough for me!

You see how that blurs the line between what's nvim related and what's not, perhaps a Misc category is in order.

I'm not sure I agree with the overall sentiment. What I'm primarily looking for when considering a package that doesn't fit one of the existing categories are usage examples where Neovim somehow directly interfaces with the tool. Taking the xxd use-case as an example; it enables translation of buffer <-> file contents via stdio, where Neovim will directly invoke the program.

This principle is loosely applied though, there will be cases where a package ticks all the boxes but it wouldn't make sense to include it (take git for example). Mason is a complement to more competent and established package managers, not a replacement!

[williamboman]

Added in #249!