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in reply to Template::Latex Frustrations . . .

Hugh,

I cannot help you directly with Template::Latex as I do not use that module --and it seems from the lack of response that few of us Monks do-- but I do use LaTeX quite a lot to produce standard reports from databases. The formatting done by LaTeX can't be beaten!

Just like you I use Template::Toolkit to produce the LaTeX source file, but rather than running it through Template::Latex or Latex::Driver (which I found rather complicated to use) I use a nice little utility called latexmk which is a make-like utility (written in Perl!) specially made to compile LaTeX-files. I call it from within my Perl-script using backticks or the system command. It has a lot of switches to configure it exactly as you like. One of the more useful functions is a clean function to get rid of the lot of temporary files LaTeX uses.

CountZero

A program should be light and agile, its subroutines connected like a string of pearls. The spirit and intent of the program should be retained throughout. There should be neither too little or too much, neither needless loops nor useless variables, neither lack of structure nor overwhelming rigidity." - The Tao of Programming, 4.1 - Geoffrey James