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Web frameworks for Scala

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The best way for me to learn a language generally is to build a project using that language. I have decided to start on this Scala journey and so far it’s been all theory and very little practice. In any case I have always been a web developer and that is where I would like to stay. So a web project in Scala is naturally the path I would want to go with. I kept stumbling across the Lift framework, I like Lift but it’s a bit tricky for me right now at this level and so I will perhaps visit it later.

I then came across the parsimonious Scalatra. I love it it’s light elegant and doesn’t require you to do too much to get started. I have not used it long enough to say that this is going to be my weapon of choice for any future developments but it’s a very strong candidate.

I only just now discovered the Play framework and on first glance it’s a brilliant looking MVC framework, honing in on my Zend experience with PHP. It feels like Zend, I have not actually started writing anything in it yet but I am going to attempt a full blown web project in it and see how that goes. Perhaps something for an EC2 instance.

Using images in LaTeX

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Note to self and perhaps others who might be wondering why your images are not displaying in your tex document.

Despite using the correct syntax:

 

 

\begin{figure}[htb]
    \begin{center}
        \includegraphics{image.png}
    \end{center}
    \caption{Fig 1: image}
    \label{fig1}
\end{figure}


You may find a box with with only the image path being displayed as your image. Please check that you are not using the “draft” argument at the top of your document when specifying your document class. A bit like

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper,draft]{article}

Make sure there is no “draft” in there so that it reads

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}

Spent about half an hour trying to figure out why everyone else’s images were displaying except mine.

LyX

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So on recommendations I have installed LyX. I am actually writing this on LyX now. I just thought I should post my thoughts on this programme.
I am not sure why I had not tried this first, it is mainly a WYSISYG editor that outputs LaTeX source or any other LaTeX-like source code for that matter. So you can type documents up as you would in a normal text editor and then not have to worry about all that LaTeX markup that you need to make it look like it should because there are a myriad of buttons you can use for styling.
I will start first with the interface. It seems very simple to use very straight forward. With the version I am using 1.6.7, I have a choice of two interfaces “Default” and “Classic” I noticed only a few differences between where menu items were placed and the toolbar buttons.
The best thing about this is programme is that you can easily use it to learn a lot more about LaTeX mark up just by being productive, this I like.
The insert command also gives you a drop down of almost everything you would need to insert in a document, from citations to images, labels to index entries unless you’re doing some very custom layouts and so on chances are that LyX will probably have what you need as a simple menu item. Then again I haven’t been using LaTeX long enough to be sure about this.
I don’t think I can give a very comprehensive review as I installed and only started using it this evening, but what I think stands it apart from every other editor I have tried is the version control that comes with it. I am not sure what backend manages this yet as I have not delved deeply into it but my first attempt at an “initial commit” failed. I will have to look into this further.
You can also split your screen between the WYSIWIG view and the source where you see valid LyX/LaTeX source being generated as you put your document together as though it were a full blown word processor.
My first impressions of this is that I love it and it is a strong contender to LaTeXilla, which I installed and have been using till now. I will give this one a try this week and see how it works for me. I have to re-iterate though that the good thing about open source and these things in general is that you don’t have to choose one as you have not shelled out tonnes of money for a license…