OT: tips for directory structure for recurring LaTeX projects

[Paul Menzel]

Dear list,


searching for

latex vcs home
latex structure vcs
latex directory structure vcs

in Google did not result in anything useful to me. If you can point me
to an information source dealing with this, I will be more than
thankful.

I do write letters and protocols using LaTeX with KOMA-Script (texdoc
scrguien). Now I want to start using a VCS.


## Current layout

The layout right now is something like this.

letters/
  20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation/
    Makefile # make [dvi|pdf] creates the respective output for me
    20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation.tex # name and address of \
addressee
    20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation.pdf # final result
    logo.eps
    logo.png
    style1.lco # Letter Class Option, defines my sender information, \
letter head, … (scrlettr2 from KOMA-Script)

  20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval/
    Makefile # make [dvi|pdf] creates the respective output for me
    20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval.tex # name and address of \
addressee
    20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval.pdf # final result
    logo.eps
    logo.png
    style2.lco # Letter Class Option, defines my sender information, \
letter head, …

### Workflow

So wanting to write a new letter, I do

        cp -r directoryOfLastLetter 20080904--vcs-home--questions
        cd 20080904--vcs-home--questions
        mv directoryOfLastLetter.tex 20080904--vcs-home--questions.tex
        rm directoryOfLastLetter.*
        # adapt variable NAME in Makefile to new name
        # maybe choose different style → I have to change Makefile \
        und tex-file also
        # edit letter
        make


## structure using VCS

I was wondering to set it up like

letters/
  logo.eps # under VC
  logo.png # under VC
  style1.lco # under VC
  style2lco # under VC
  sent/
    pdf/
      20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation.pdf # under VC
      20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval.pdf # under VC
    eps/
  20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation/
    Makefile # under VC
    20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation.tex # under VC
    20080101--BankOfIndia--AccountCreation.pdf # final result
    logo.eps # symlink ../logo.eps
    logo.png # symlink ../logo.png
    style1.lco # symlink ../style1.lco

  20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval/
    Makefile # under VC
    20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval.tex # under VC
    20080202--BoC--AccountRemoval.pdf # final result
    logo.eps # symlink ../logo.eps
    logo.png # symlink ../logo.png
    style2.lco # symlink ../style2.lco

### Workflow

        cp -r directoryOfLastLetter 20080904--vcs-home--questions # or \
        svn cp
        cd 20080904--vcs-home--questions
        git-mv directoryOfLastLetter.tex
        20080904--vcs-home--questions.tex\
        or svn mv
        rm directoryOfLastLetter.*
        # adapt variable NAME in Makefile to new name
        # maybe change lco-file → adapt Makefile and tex-file
        # edit letter
        git-commit -a
        make
        # edit and commit until done
        cp 20080904--vcs-home--questions.pdf ../sent/pdf/
        git-commit -a


#### Pros:
• Saving a genuine copy of the letter in sent. Because later wanting to
recreate a letter might output different looking result because of a
different version of e. g. LaTeX or style.lco has changed. (But this is
dependent from VCS. I should have created this before.)

#### Cons:
• The Makefile is copied more than needed. The only difference is the
NAME variable.
Solution:
        ‣ name every letter letter.tex and just rename it when copying
        to sent/

• Still some renaming stuff to do. Ok, a name has to be entered.
Solutions:
        ‣ Set up a template directory, which can be checked out somehow?


Ok, I hope you could understand my setup. I think, thinking about this I
came up with some more issues. But I can not remember right now.


I know a lot is personal preference. But maybe you have set up a
workflow you are satisfied with, which you can share.


Thanks in advance,

Paul
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