Grants:IEG/LaTeX Export

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Done[edit]

The requested server is now running in wikimedias data center.

http://mediawiki2latex.wmflabs.org/


status: withdrawn

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eligibility and selection criteria

project:

LaTeX Export

idea creator:

5.147.70.36

project contact:

Dirk Hünniger on German Wikibooks [1]

participants:



Dirk Hünniger



summary:

Export Wiki Pages to LaTeX





2013 round 2

Project idea[edit]

Proving high quality PDF versions of wiki pages rendered with the famous LaTeX typesetting software.

Project goals[edit]

Provide the community with typographically great PDF versions of articles.

Project plan[edit]

Scope:[edit]

Scope and activities[edit]

We will just set up the server and care that it keeps running. But the actual works of this project was the development of a software to do the necessary conversion, which is already concluded.

Tools, technologies, and techniques[edit]

We need a server for two years. In particular this one http://www.hetzner.de/hosting/produkte_rootserver/ex40ssd .

Budget:[edit]

Total amount requested[edit]

We need exactly $1936 for the project.

Budget breakdown[edit]

The whole budget is used to rent the server given above.

Intended impact:[edit]

Target audience[edit]

Everyone who wants to download high quality PDF bersions of Wiki Pages.

Fit with strategy[edit]

Improving Quality

Sustainability[edit]

After two year the project given below will have come up with a working system which will then take over.

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/diffusion/EOCL/


Measures of success[edit]

The only measure of success is the availability and quality of the PDF generation service proposed in this project.


Participant(s)[edit]

Well the point is we, as individual persons don't need any money from the grant project, since our work is already finished and we already created an open source LaTeX Export for MediaWiki that works well. We are mainly students and former students of mathematical sciences. The whole money is used for the rent of the server and in particular no costs for personnel are covers by this grant.



Discussion[edit]

Community Notification:[edit]

Please paste a link to where the relevant communities have been notified of this proposal, and to any other relevant community discussions, here. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Endorsements:[edit]

Do you think this project should be selected for an Individual Engagement Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

  • Community member: add your name and rationale here.
  • As an admin on de.wikibooks I've seen many requests for print out versions. The build-in capabilities of Mediawiki are cumbersome at best, and without the continuos efforts of Dirk Huenninger, creator of this grant, we would have a lot less printable versions, in quantity as well as in quality. Therefore, I wholeheartedly support this grant. --NeuerNutzer2009 (talk) 11:15, 7 March 2013 (UTC)
  • I've been a major contributor and maintainer of the LaTeX wikibook for a while now, and I'd say it's sad that we cannot easily provide a nicely typeset book when LaTeX is actually a document preparation system with a strong emphasis on typography. Printed books are not just a fancy option, there are essential to a lot of people. There is a lot of content hosted on Wiki projects, and a lot of them are very valuable, sometimes even more than specialized books. But without proper formatting, PDF version cannot be considered as good as library books. You need formatting quality if you do not want to hurt the quality of the content. Otherwise wiki books wouldn't look serious at all. I strongly believe WikiMedia should endorse a great typesetting system, and that's why I'm fully endorsing it myself. -- Ambrevar (talk) 13:29, 12 March 2013 (UTC)
  • I have spent quite some time looking for a PDF-converter for wikibooks, and believe that this would significantly contribute to the usability of wikibooks in general. Thomas.haslwanter (talk) 11:49, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
  • I also think this would be a great new feature for the wikimedia projects Stephan Kulla (talk) 22:05, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
  • Helped me a lot and should grow larger ! DaKine23 (talk) 22:05, 3 May 2013 (UTC)
  • This feature would be very welcome to Wikibooks projects! Helder 19:12, 29 August 2013 (UTC)
  • This project looks very promising. It's maybe the occasion to build a nice export platform build in MediaWiki that may be used to export in some other formats like epub. Tpt (talk) 06:09, 13 September 2013 (UTC)