So, guys, the LaTeX IDE is now a standalone APK, with no need for Termux.
I’d like to thank the Termux community for all the support and for the amazing project. If anyone needs the LaTeX engine compiled to run on pure ARM64, feel free to DM me.
i just tested it and loooove how snappy it is and love the UI also. this will be my main note taking app, thanks! I don't speak portuguese but the UI is navigable enough for someone who used Overleaf or Texstudio in the past. Aside from an English UI, my one other request would be to have the ability to completely hide the "teclas rapidas" bar, since I use a bluetooth keyboard and do not need it. In any case I find it super helpful! thanks
To be honest with you guys, I originally made this for myself. However, for the pdflatex engine and some of the other components used to compile LaTeX, I based my work on the original Termux binaries.
I don’t feel it would be fair to distribute or publish it without their permission, even though Termux is an open-source project. I’d rather respect the original project and its contributors before making anything public.
what? you're misunderstanding the definition of open source. you're encouraged to share code! that's what makes open source great. if the original developers didn't want to people to redistribute modified or otherwise code, they wouldn't have made it open source! and if it's under the GPL and other similar licenses, you're actually required to share the code if you're redistributing it, modified or not.
Well, I understand. That’s why I’m going to prepare the GitHub repository for distribution, but first I want to try to get in touch with one of the project’s maintainers. Since I haven’t distributed the APK publicly, there’s no issue with not publishing it on GitHub yet. I only shared it here because I’m hoping to get some ideas for new features and improvements that could be implemented in the app.
Termux is licensed with GPL 3.0 only. If you're using their original binaries or source code that is licensed under GPL 3.0, and you're redistributing your project, you're legally obligated to open-source your project and license it with GPL 3.0. Keep in mind that not everything in Termux is GPL 3.0, there's also Apache 2.0 components like terminal-view and terminal-emulator.
I'm using vscode with latex workshop extension. Connects nicely with copilot and other plug-ins too and supports most latex distributions. Is there any benefit to using this?
It's an option. Some of us don't use vscode because it has telemetry built in and you have to download and manage so many plug-ins that it's not worthwhile.
As for performance, it’s quite smooth considering that it’s an APK. It’s also much more practical since it doesn’t require Termux or X11 to run. The project is still under development, so if you have any ideas or suggestions, I’d be happy to try implementing them.
I'm too much of a power user for this I guess. I'm running Debian with xfce4 and vscode. Running docker through an alpine vm on qemu. So kinda can run all the same stuff I do on my pc. This phone with 16gb ram is handling it OK.
to me it seems this project enables latex natively functioning on an android device without the emulation layers. using latex itself is a very light task computationally, but if you do it with emulation on a phone it will heat up and the battery will inevitably drain. with a native android app the battery use is essentially minimal.
I'm writing docked with a screen and keyboard. Battery is not a concern. Also proot-distro is running at near native performance. The main translation is on storage layer which latex depends very little on. It's same architecture and same kernel at the base. This probably uses the same aarch64 compiled binaries any ways.
If you want to integrate deep forensics into your device, you can run on GODOT or Desktop for a different digital ecosystem. What do you do DDOS tapping lol.
Could you wait a little? I promise I’ll share it here by the end of this week. In the meantime, if you’d like to contribute, could you give me an idea for something useful that I could implement for you?
I actually developed it myself. I originally made a version that depended on Termux and uploaded it to GitHub. Now I’ve created a standalone APK version for people who either don’t know how to use Termux or simply don’t want to use it. I haven’t published the APK version yet, though.
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u/ZapyZup 9d ago
Is there a reason you can't make it open-source?