UK TeX FAQ -- question label latexqual

### The quality of your LaTeX

The l2tabu tutorial (mentioned in online introductions) is undoubtedly a good read.

However, it’s always difficult to remember the things you should not do, when there are so many things to remember that you really must do: some automation is useful….

The nicely-named nag allows you to apply a configurable set of checks to your document, as you run it through LaTeX; you get messages like:

>     Package nag Warning: Command \bf is an old LaTeX 2.09 command.
>     (nag)                Use \bfseries or \textbf instead on input line 30.

(the package provides a demo file which contains most of the sorts of errors you might make — the example is one of them). While l2tabu and nag alert you to possible programming errors, you should not forget that they are merely commenting on style; don’t assume that a nag error is going to damn your code — rather, note the issue and try to train your fingers not to do the same “next time”.

The lacheck program analyses your source and comments on it; its view of what is “bad” is very subjective (the documentation says), but it can be useful.

There’s also a web site TeXidate which will do a static analysis of your document (unfortunately, you have to paste your document source into a text window). The site doesn’t seem as comprehensive as nag, but it allows you to download its script, which you can then juggle with to make it more draconian.

`l2tabu`
  Browse info/l2tabu for a copy of the document in a language that is convenient for you
`lacheck`
  support/lacheck (or browse the directory); catalogue entry
`nag.sty`
  macros/latex/contrib/nag (or browse the directory); catalogue entry

This answer last edited: 2012-10-09

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