Desktop thesis editor built for HighTex.
HighTex Desktop is a desktop version of HighTex, a thesis writing application originally developed as my final-year project.
The goal of HighTex is simple: help students focus on writing their thesis instead of fighting with document formatting.
HighTex started as my final-year project in the Information Systems program at UIN Sultan Syarif Kasim Riau.
One of the requirements in our program is that theses must follow a strict academic formatting standard, and students are encouraged to use LaTeX to produce consistent and professional-looking documents.
While LaTeX is undeniably powerful, many students are introduced to it only when they begin writing their thesis. As a result, a significant amount of time is spent learning commands, fixing formatting issues, and searching for solutions to compilation errors instead of focusing on the research itself.
HighTex was created as an attempt to make the thesis-writing process more approachable. The goal was never to replace academic standards, but to make them easier to follow by providing a more user-friendly writing experience.
The project originally started as a web application and later evolved into a desktop application.
The original plan was for the web version to be deployed.
Unfortunately, there has never been a clear answer regarding when that deployment would happen. Rather than waiting indefinitely, I decided to build a version that students can use immediately.
A web application always comes with infrastructure concerns.
Someone has to provide storage, maintain backups, monitor usage, and pay for servers. formerly i've tried to deploy a server with small resources my self , but it is not enough for hightex app, compiling documents is using large resouces, and i dont wanna pay more for non profit app.
With a desktop application, documents are stored locally on the user's machine. This removes many of the restrictions that would otherwise affect development decisions.
Writing a thesis should not depend on internet availability.
Students should be able to continue working whether they are at home, on campus, or somewhere without a reliable connection.
There are many features I have wanted to implement over the years but kept postponing because they were difficult to justify in a server-based environment.
Questions such as:
- How much storage will this consume?
- How expensive will this be to run?
- Will it affect other users?
- Is it safe to expose this feature on a public server?
often influenced what could and could not be built.
With a desktop application, many of those concerns disappear. Features can be designed around the user's needs rather than server limitations.
The honest answer is practicality.
To be completely transparent, Electron would not be my first choice if resources, time, and maintenance were unlimited.
Applications built on similar technologies are often criticized for consuming more memory and system resources than traditional desktop applications. Anyone who has used applications such as Discord or WhatsApp Desktop has probably noticed this at some point.
I understand those criticisms.
However, HighTex is primarily developed by one person, and every technical decision must balance idealism against reality.
HighTex already existed before the desktop version.
A significant amount of work had already been invested into the editor, document system, and user interface.
Rebuilding everything separately for each operating system would have meant spending years recreating work that was already done.
Supporting multiple operating systems is difficult.
Building and maintaining separate implementations would introduce more complexity, more bugs, and more opportunities for features to behave differently depending on the platform.
A shared codebase keeps behavior consistent and makes maintenance manageable.
Every hour spent rebuilding infrastructure is an hour not spent improving the actual writing experience.
My priority is improving HighTex itself, not maintaining multiple platform-specific versions of the same application.
Like many personal and academic projects, HighTex could easily become trapped in an endless cycle of rewrites and architectural improvements.
At some point, software needs to be usable.
Electron may not be the most elegant solution, but it is the solution that allows HighTex Desktop to exist today instead of remaining an unfinished project.
For this project, shipping was more important than pursuing perfection.
HighTex Desktop is currently under active development.
Features, architecture, and workflows may continue to evolve as the project grows.
macOS builds distributed through GitHub Releases are unsigned and not notarized. This causes two known issues during installation and updating.
After downloading the DMG, macOS may block the app with a message like "HighTex" is damaged and can't be opened. This is expected for unsigned builds.
To fix it, run the following command after installing HighTex to /Applications:
xattr -cr /Applications/HighTex.appThen open HighTex normally.
The built-in auto-updater downloads the update successfully, but Squirrel.Mac requires a valid Apple Developer certificate to apply it. Since the build is unsigned, the update is downloaded but never installed.
After the updater finishes downloading, apply the update manually:
rm -rf /Applications/HighTex.app && unzip ~/Library/Caches/hightex-desktop-updater/update.zip -d /Applications/Then relaunch HighTex.
These limitations will be resolved once the macOS build is signed and notarized with an Apple Developer certificate.