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1:35 AM
@Brent.Longborough That's all Greek to me. :P
 
 
4 hours later…
5:44 AM
@AndrewStacey I understand your reaction. I wondered why my question on meta.so was downvoted. I was just asking "why ....?" and seeking for an explanation. The first reaction was -2 :) I am glad that we are different here.
 
6:40 AM
@N3buchadnezzar I've had a response on the TL list. Apparently there was a difference in the way TL's binaries read files on Windows and on other systems, which lead to the issue you see. Updates have been created, but I don't know whether they will be added to TL2012 or have to wait for next year (the TL approach is cautious about binary changes, but this is a clear bug so ...)
 
 
2 hours later…
9:03 AM
@cmhughes I borrowed some bits of your MWE hope you don't mind.
 
@DavidCarlisle I think you need to include the other bits of cmhughes answer since the one you've given also modifies how \eqref does its stuff in the main text, which is why you have such a big gap between Test reference: and (1).
See:
13
Q: Changing the apperance of equation numbers with amsmath

diabonasFor equations in my document, I use the facilities of the amsmath package. In order to make the equation numbers more eye-catching, I want them to be in boldface and a little bit indented to the right, i.e. like this: I've already tried redefining the internal amsmath macros \maketag@@@ or \t...

 
9:26 AM
@PatrickGundlach Yes, they were all pious upholding "SE Standards", yet they downvoted your question "because the answer was no", rather than because the question was badly put.
 
@Brent.Longborough When I am old, I'll understand them :)
 
@PatrickGundlach It doesn't really work like that; I'm ancient not to know everything, but I don't understand anything anymore.
 
@Brent.Longborough On meta voting is supposed to work differently to the main site
 
@PauloCereda It's on the front of the Pump House in Bath Spa; it means "Water is excellent"; some wag somewhere added "when it doesn't fall from the sky".
@JosephWright Oh. It still feels a bit like a mediæval auto-da-fé, though.
 
@AndrewStacey ah I only grabbed the tufte document shell bits to save me working out what to do:-)
 
9:44 AM
@JosephWright: Would it be worthwhile putting together a blog post on my experience moving to emacs as my TeX editor?
 
@Brent.Longborough Sure, why not
 
@JosephWright OK, I'll see what I can come up with in a couple of days (busy busy busy)
 
@AndrewStacey fixed thanks and added reference to the previous question.
 
@Brent.Longborough That would be interesting.
 
@DavidCarlisle Of course, my evil plan was to ensure that the link to the old question was there so I could get some more rep.
 
9:53 AM
@TorbjørnT. Yes, it's been a very positive experience
 
10:32 AM
@AndrewStacey yes I realised that but thought it the honourable thing to do (even though my evil plan was to pass you on that count:-)
 
10:56 AM
Heiko is going for the reversal badge :P ..... Live action from
-2
Q: Data conversion (datatool, fp)

user1558112Ich bin auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit aus einer Datei folgender Struktur 1,a 2,a 2,a 2,a 3,a 3,a 4,a 4,a 4,a 4,a 5,a 5,a 6,a 6,a 7,a folgendes zu machen 1 1 2 3 3 2 4 4 5 2 6 2 7 1 (Das A dient nur dazu um zu zeigen, dass es mehrere spalten geben kann... ICh denke an das package dat...

 
@percusse LOL
 
@JosephWright Re 3d question. Done - I was waiting for some response from the questioner. Given that there hasn't been, I haven't spent long on the answer so it's not one of my best, but hopefully enough to get it off the unanswered list!
@percusse Ah, so should we reverse our don't-downvote-too-far policy to help out here? Doesn't the reversal badge require a -5 on the question?
 
@AndrewStacey Sure. It's just a teaser.
 
@AndrewStacey Downvotes are light in rep, compared to upvotes. Such a "downvote policy" destroys the possibility to differentiate between bad questions or very useless or very bad questions. 1000 questions with -1 is perhaps not so bad as if we had also a scaling in the minus.
 
Some say he can do a reversal with -2.
 
11:04 AM
My effort for a reversal is here ;-)
-2
Q: LaTeX optimal settings for MS Word-like document

umarWhen you create a new document in Microsoft Word, you get a standard blank document with the right margins. Moreover when that document is exported to PDF, you are satisfied with the layout. Over and over I have tried to get the best out of LaTeX, to make it standard looking but I have failed. U...

It proofs that a reversal cannot happen with -2
 
Some say he can do a reversal with -5 downvotes to a 25 upvoted question....
 
@percusse Yiannis is much closer to achieving that:-) tex.stackexchange.com/questions/48295/…
 
@percusse I understand!
 
"Doing this would result in killing a large amount of cute furry animals, are you sure you want to do this?"
@StefanKottwitz Yeees
But are you really sure you want to ?
Probably tastes better too
 
@StefanKottwitz I think you are tricked by the pet shop. They gave you a wolf :)
 
11:20 AM
@StefanKottwitz Their effect on reputation is very minor. What is more important is their effect on the questioner. I agree that saying "Don't downvote beyond -1" isn't a great policy in and of itself, I'd rather have "One downvote per reason", but that would involve a bit more coordination so I doubt it'll happen. However, we do have a reasonable scale at the moment: time. A new question should only get -1 because we give the questioner time to improve their question.
So a minus vote on a question asked today doesn't mean a lot. But a minus vote on a question that is a month old means a lot. Then we start closing procedures which is probably better than downvotes because the reason is clear to all why it is being closed.
(Why do we suddenly have lots of pictures of daft animals? Could someone please get rid of them.)
 
@AndrewStacey That's why I posted the 2nd one as link, not as picture
@AndrewStacey Yes, the timing is a very good reason, regarding the effect on the OP.
 
@StefanKottwitz Mind you, that "dog" looks like it would happily eat that cat. Can we delete the comments in between?
 
@StefanKottwitz Do the downvotes for deleted-due-to-spam gets removed if the question is hidden/deleted?
 
@StefanKottwitz The unofficial "Don't downvote past -1" policy is really there to stop piling-on. It's like the text-blocks on meta: it reminds you to think before you act so that if you do downvote, you are fully aware of what you are doing and aren't just reacting. That's the idea, anyway.
 
@AndrewStacey No problem, I removed the picture I posted, and my related chat lines
 
11:30 AM
Still about this question:
-2
Q: Data conversion (datatool, fp)

user1558112Ich bin auf der Suche nach einer Möglichkeit aus einer Datei folgender Struktur 1,a 2,a 2,a 2,a 3,a 3,a 4,a 4,a 4,a 4,a 5,a 5,a 6,a 6,a 7,a folgendes zu machen 1 1 2 3 3 2 4 4 5 2 6 2 7 1 (Das A dient nur dazu um zu zeigen, dass es mehrere spalten geben kann... ICh denke an das package dat...

I voted TL.
 
@percusse I think the effect of downvotes goes away after deletion
 
I love German, but I'm afraid I won't be able to understand that question in at least 5 years. :(
 
@StefanKottwitz I see, thanks.
 
@StefanKottwitz Oh no! I was only being silly! My comment about removing comments was to enable the "dog" to get at the kitten. Sorry.
 
@AndrewStacey So it's an opportunity to test undeletion in the chat room ;-)
 
11:44 AM
@StefanKottwitz Go for it!
 
Doesn't work, no undelete, and editing is impossible. No big deal, but good to know.
 
Now Apple is suggesting me to give an iPad to my dad. It won't work. :P
 
@StefanKottwitz Oh dear. In that case, you should at least repost the picture of your "dog".
@PauloCereda That's the standard way to get an iPad: your parent gets one and then you use it all the time. Before long, we'll have to playing Angry Birds ...
 
@PauloCereda then give it to me, it will work :)
 
Seems like I have problems uinstalling TL2012, thats strange..
 
11:54 AM
@AndrewStacey Now it's a secret know to few of us, remaining to be revealed in an interview by @PauloCereda, perhaps some time in the future ;-)
 
@AndrewStacey Oh I see. :) My dad is very curious about a big box with "iMac" written on it over my table. He said, "ooh there's an apple in the box!" :P
@PatrickGundlach I need one first. :P
@DavidCarlisle LOL
 
@DavidCarlisle Hahahahaha
 
@DavidCarlisle Hilarious!
 
@StefanKottwitz Don't try to escape, you promised an interview this year. :P
 
11:57 AM
@PauloCereda didn't you see me then pointing with the finger to a calendar of next year? ;-)
 
Jan 20 at 15:37, by Stefan Kottwitz
@PauloCereda Later this year there could be something more to talk about than now.
@StefanKottwitz We can interview @DavidCarlisle again. :)
 
@PauloCereda Why not, much happened since April this year
 
Paulo should start interviewing animals, or fruits, or ducks.
Quack quack quuuack?
Quuack quuuuack quack quack.
Qack quack quack quack?
Quack!
 
@N3buchadnezzar Well, interviews are more serious than some occasional chat talk.
 
Point taken.
 
12:05 PM
I'm glad Paulo does that.
 
@N3buchadnezzar I once ran from a duck, it was trying to bite me. Or was it a goose? :)
 
"Paulo Cereda has a problem. His cat can type. All day long he hears 'Click, clack, meow; Click clack, meow; Clickety-clack, meow.'."
 
@AndrewStacey That's true. :) I once left my desk to refill my cup of coffee, while my cat was playing near me. When I came back, I tried to compile the code, but it failed! When I saw what happened, there were a lot of extra letters in the source code! The cat had hit my keyboard while I was gone! :)
System.out.println("hello world)zdsghfdzkghfdkjghfdkjhgkdsjfzhkzsdfjhkzf;
 
@PauloCereda It's when they work out how to do online grocery shopping that we need to start worrying. Then they'll have no need for people any more.
2
 
@StefanKottwitz You are OK before your interrogation we have chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/5389360#5389360
 
12:12 PM
@AndrewStacey So true! :)
 
Finally!
Tl2012 uinstalled, Miktex isntalled
Everything compiles again =)
But I think I will go back to texmaker, old habits die slowly
 
@DavidCarlisle I especially like the expression in the eyes!
 
Heiko is the maintainer of packages such as Bookmarks, and Hyperref. Is he the creator of the package, was it a collaboration, or did he take over? Just my "humble" curiosity.
 
@StefanKottwitz It scares me. :)
 
@N3buchadnezzar hyperref was taken over, but Heiko has written more packages than the mathematicians have numbers, they usually stop at \infty.
7
 
12:21 PM
Jul 28 at 14:34, by Brent.Longborough
Heiko Fact #1: The TeX format that Heiko uses only needs one pass. Ever. For some documents, it needs zero passes.
 
Written packages to infinity twice..
I like that funny.
 
@PatrickGundlach *must ... not ... reply ... bad ... mathematics ... joke ... *
 
@StefanKottwitz @PauloCereda drew the eyes....
 
@AndrewStacey but don't tell us that is wrong, I have never seen a mathematician who uses numbers, only for the trivial examples.
 
@PatrickGundlach That statement is certainly right: we never actually use numbers. But we have more of them than \infty if ever we decided to do anything so crude as actually use one.
 
12:30 PM
@AndrewStacey Did you actually try to use one? Are you sure you have them? ;-)
 
And also the point of mathematics is to use far more Greek letters than English ones, if you can throw in some odd looking letters as well you receive additional bonus points.
 
@N3buchadnezzar only if they are in subscript :)
 
@DavidCarlisle The original eyes seemed rather innocent. (tex.blogoverflow.com/2012/02/…)
 
$\ell$
 
@PatrickGundlach Let's just say that I'm as sure I have them as I am that you're a real person ...
 
12:35 PM
@AndrewStacey meow (I am a cat)
5
 
1:00 PM
@StefanKottwitz ah. It's my sketching in the top of the head (where Gonzalo's hat had been:-)
 
@PatrickGundlach moo
 
Oh no, tex4ht again:
l.17 --- TeX4ht warning --- \Link{ }? ---
! Undefined control sequence.
\Link ->\let \:attr
                   \empty \futurelet \let:val \HRefT:ag
l.25    \item  Part \ref{sec_int}
                                , starts with some introductory remarks abo...
looks like l3 to me, right?
 
1:18 PM
Turns out TeX can knit. Next stop, toast.
3
1
Q: LaTeX Error: File `knitting.sty' not found - cannot get knitting package to run

Anju FabulinaI am using LaTeX to typeset instructions for a knitting pattern that I designed. Additionally, I would like to include a knitting chart to visualize the motif. I found the knitting package on CTAN which looks very close to what I want to do. I followed the instructions in the package documentatio...

Do we have a question that explains about texhash and the like?
 
@AndrewStacey and Marmite (by analogy with memoir - I'm a fanboy)
 
<3 MikTex
 
1:38 PM
DejàVu:
<3
 
1:50 PM
@PauloCereda Hopefully that was made with tikz ;)
Common mistake: Mixing tikz and tux, no you can not draw beautiful figures using a penguin!
 
2:03 PM
Any recommendations for what to do with the following question? The questioner installed a package by hand and didn't run texhash. I suggested that in the comments as I wasn't sure that would be the answer, and it turned out that it was. So now should I "answer" it, or is there an obvious duplicate explaining about texhash, or is it "Too localised"?
1
Q: LaTeX Error: File `knitting.sty' not found - cannot get knitting package to run

Anju FabulinaI am using LaTeX to typeset instructions for a knitting pattern that I designed. Additionally, I would like to include a knitting chart to visualize the motif. I found the knitting package on CTAN which looks very close to what I want to do. I followed the instructions in the package documentatio...

 
Since this package must be installed manually, I guess more than one person could make this mistake. Is the need to run texhash well explained in the document?
 
I used to say that "These days, scientific articles are only read by the authors, reviewers and the proof readers". I was wrong, scratch the last part.
 
I am throwing away an insane amount of old papers. It seems I have kept every single test I have ever taken in every subject from secondary school...
 
@N3buchadnezzar The documentation says (apparently) "Any time you add supporting files to a local MiKTeX root, you have to refresh the file name database" which isn't the clearest way of saying "run texhash after installing"
 
I also seemed to be particularly fond of glossy 3d fonts in Word. Sometimes I am glad I grew up.
 
2:14 PM
@percusse As a proponent of the Oxford comma, the "last part" in that is "reviewers and the proof readers". I concur with your revised statement.
Yay! Answered a question on sci-fi.
 
@AndrewStacey Believe or not, I've learned about it just a month ago. So excuse my ignorance :)
 
@AndrewStacey My suggestion is to keep the question as others can run into it too.
 
2:26 PM
@AndrewStacey Back in the day, it was seen as a universal truth that reviewers only look at the bibliography and proofreaders are for introducing semantic errors by misunderstanding terminology.
 
Watch out we got a xy-pic question combined with lyx!
 
3:12 PM
@N3buchadnezzar Yes, I suppose that, for Word, that is 'Art'. :(
2
 
 
1 hour later…
4:17 PM
Yiannis earned the second Reversal badge! :)
20
A: Stringified commands to macros sequence

Yiannis LazaridesFirst there is no notion of a string as we understand it in other computer languages in TeX. TeX works using tokens and boxes. Each token is then mapped onto a glyph or series of glyphs or does other operations. So how does one parse a string like the following and build commands? x4y3[cgreen, t...

 
@PauloCereda why second? it's the first.
 
@MarcoDaniel Alan got one before. :)
I meant, the second badge from TeX. :)
 
@PauloCereda Ah -- ok
 
@PauloCereda thought he might:-)
 
4:34 PM
I want to answer this question. tex.stackexchange.com/questions/66066/… Is there a way to print material always at the top of the page? I think \begin{figure}[!t] won't work?
 
@DavidCarlisle great answer (as usual) on tex.stackexchange.com/questions/65917/… And of course I don't mind you using some of my answer :)
 
@cmhughes It wasn't so great initially until @AndrewStacey pointed out that my ability to steal was lacking.
 
@DavidCarlisle I couldn't fix the vertical skip- it seemed to be caused by \rlap, or did I misunderstand
 
@cmhughes I suppose at some point I'm point to have to look why it needs 1sp
 
@DavidCarlisle oh, so was it the kern that fixed it then?
 
4:38 PM
@cmhughes amsmath has some fairly delicate code that tries to work out if the eqn number will fit, and if not to move it down For some reason if the natural width is 0pt it decides it does not fit so moves it making the width anything small gets it back on track. probably a < should be a <= somewhere in the logic...
 
@DavidCarlisle ok, thanks for the details :) I'll try and fix my answer to tex.stackexchange.com/questions/59244/… which suffered from a similar problem (although I didn't realize it until yesterday)
 
5:09 PM
@Kurt if something is really wrong with a comment then one way to solve this is to make a new command and simply drop the old one before or afterwards. Bit painful, but helps others eventually
@DavidCarlisle isn't that 0pt convention somehting that alrerady Don came up with, so it is: make use of boundery case for special handling and amsmath simply kept it possible
 
5:27 PM
I think this success should be celebrated...
animated video before the actual Curiosity landing
 
@Brent.Longborough Nice blog post!
 
@DavidCarlisle I agree that was, for some weird reason, better than my post. Hats off to the NASA logo!! Great job.
 
@percusse not me of course:-) (M is 8 and did the programming on that on his own, scratch is quite nice for that sort of thing)
 
@DavidCarlisle Yep, I figured it. I remember this from your interview
 
5:37 PM
@Audrey: Are you here?
I provided an answer too. But you were faster :-(
\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[style=authoryear,backend=biber,]{biblatex}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}
\DeclareFieldFormat{mylabel}{\textbf{#1}}
\renewbibmacro*{begentry}{%
  \printtext[mylabel]{%
    \begingroup
     \renewcommand*{\multinamedelim}{\space/\space}
     \renewcommand*{\finalnamedelim}{\space/\space}
      \usebibmacro{cite}%
    \endgroup
    }%
  \newline
}
\DeclareNameFormat{last-first}{%
  \iffirstinits
    {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}
    {\usebibmacro{name:last-first}{#1}{#4}{#5}{#7}}%
 
What is the best way to write C02?
 
@N3buchadnezzar You can use the package \usepackage[version=3]{mhchem} and then \ce{CO2}
 
@N3buchadnezzar Also @JosephWright has written the chemstyle package which is built on top as far as I know.
 
@Frank: Thanks for your advice. I think my problem is my fight with my school english and school is a few days ago ...
 
5:52 PM
@Kurt nope ... you will fight forever even if you are a native usually .. just fingers and brain not snyced
see? synced
 
@Frank: :-))
 
6:33 PM
@Kurt not that I'm native :-)
 
I'm a nativ German speaker and I suppose you too. Reading English is one thing, understandig the other and writing a real challenge. So I'm thankfull for everone who corrected my answers and questions ...
@Frank: I'm a nativ German speaker and I suppose you too. Reading English is one thing, understandig the other and writing a real challenge. So I'm thankfull for everone who corrected my answers and questions ... Sorry, forget your user ...
 
You can use the uparrow on the keyboard to edit messages =)
 
hey guys, I am working on a project and wanted to sound out if there were any volunteers -- is that appropriate to ask about on the main site?
 
@codebeard you mean as a Q&A question? I would think not as it is not somehting that would help anybody else in the future would it? butthen ... others may think differently
 
@codebeard I think it's better here. As far as I understand, your request wouldn't be "a real question"...
 
6:43 PM
Sure, that's what I thought
although, depending on your point of view you could think of it as helping people in the future
I've volunteered to help typeset a newly finished Bible translation
 
@codebeard Well if the request has the form of a question "can TeX do this" which can be answered by writing a package, you could just try...
 
You could ask "What is the best way to acquire proofreaders/collaborators/etc" on the site though.
 
hmm "what is the best way to find tex wizards who'd be happy to help typeset a bible for charity"?
 
@codebeard I'm afraid you'll have to do the main work yourself... If you need a wizard to realise some particular kind of formatting though, the main site is just the place to go.
 
6:50 PM
Is there anyone here good with the animation package?
 
@Stephan sure, will do. I will just ask my questions as they come up.
 
@PatrickGundlach Uh, scary list of non-working languages though... Does it have something to do with LuaTeX itself or is it just a matter of adding support for languages one-by-one?
 
@StephanLehmke I don't know any details yet, but I believe it its the fact that XeTeX can't be translated to LuaTeX one by one, completely new code needs to be written for LuaTeX. I don't see any technical (theoretical) problems supporting those languages for LuaTeX
 
7:37 PM
@PauloCereda If only I'd known .. there've been a couple of topology conferences in South America just now, one in Sao Paulo just finished on Friday.
 
@AndrewStacey Really? :) I'd invite you for a cup of coffee -though São Paulo still scares me. :)
 
7:58 PM
@PauloCereda I have slightly fonder memories of Sao Paulo (sorry, don't know how to get the accent) than of Rio but that's completely down to the hotels I was in in both cases.
 
@Garbage Collector; please don't edit my answers only to change my beloved black rectangles ;-) with some images. If you want to popularize the usage of example-image-*, please do so using your own answers.
 
@GonzaloMedina I learned about the titling package when trying to contribute with another answer in that question. :)
 
@PauloCereda Why didn't you post your answer?
 
@GonzaloMedina I did. :P
@AndrewStacey I've never been to Rio, but I imagine it's a very different city. :) São Paulo is very nice, it has everything, but I found a little chaotic. :) I live about 250km from it. :)
 
@PauloCereda ... I've seen the film ...
 
8:08 PM
@PauloCereda Sorry; I didn't noticed it. So now your fancy image is competing with my old-fashioned black rectangle? ;-)
 
@GonzaloMedina LOL it's not my fault, I swear! :) When I started writing my answer, your answer still had the "fancy" one. :P
 
More seriously, I was in Brazil for just over a week with a bunch of students. So I didn't really get the full Brazilian experience. The hotel in Sao Paulo was a classy one, the one in Rio was ... not. But on the other hand, there was a cafe on the beachfront that would let me write on their tablecloths so my experiences of Rio weren't all bad.
 
@GonzaloMedina: tex.stackexchange.com/a/66107/3094 See edit message. :P
 
@PauloCereda That's much better! (I am joking, of course; you can use the other one.)
 
@GonzaloMedina Nah, at first I was gonna use the old-fashioned black rectangle, but since I saw your fancy rectangle, I opted for that. :)
I had to edit again. My new message:
 
8:19 PM
@N.N. Thank you. As it was my first, I was a bit uncertain as to whether it was a bit too "chatty".
@AndrewStacey They probably sell the tablecloth afterwards as a piece of classical European keming...
 
@Brent.Longborough shhh jeitinho brasileiro. :P
 
@PauloCereda LOL 'I am going to give the little way'
 
@Brent.Longborough LOL
 
@Brent.Longborough So when I'm rich and famous ... oh, hang on. I'm a mathematician. I meant "So when I'm not quite so poor and still no one knows who I am ..."
3
 
I had to wrote a long chain of matrices today for an answer. The website uses an old version of MathJax that does not support linebreaks/lineskips in the code.
Oh the horror.
 
8:25 PM
@AndrewStacey "I have found an interesting proof of the Riemann hypothesis, but this tablecloth is too small to contain it" --- I dare you.
 
@Brent.Longborough These days I just practise drawing the Borromean rings.
 
@AndrewStacey I don't think you're allowed to call them 'rings' any more, because of the LoCoG copyright. And of course, the answer cannot be 2012. Just as well that's not a very interesting number.
 
@Brent.Longborough Re encoding and unicode in Emacs:
3
A: How do I change the encoding of my files?

Harald Hanche-OlsenChanging the encoding of a file in emacs is easy, at least in GNU emacs at or beyond version 23, I think. First, visit the file in an emacs buffer. If emacs does not automatically visit the file with its current encoding, close the buffer, then type C-x C-m c to specify the file's current coding ...

@Brent.Longborough Ah, but I don't use numbers. And The LoCoG logo bears no resemblance to the Borromean rings as they are Hopf linked (I was very disappointed with the flaming rings that they didn't link them. Spoilt the entire opening ceremony.)
 
@AndrewStacey Ah, yes, that's OK -- Emacs doesn't mess with my files at all - it just thinks it knows better about my typing. Once I've managed to get a ŵ or a ğ into my file, it's fine.
 
@Brent.Longborough Oh, I see. Misunderstood.
(I'm currently having an annoying issue with the auto-save. The encoding that it uses for auto-save doesn't support all the characters in utf-8 so it complains every time it tries to auto-save my document. Had to turn it off.)
 
8:33 PM
@AndrewStacey Yoda says: "Misunderstanding there is not; poor explanation only"
@AndrewStacey Oh, that's weird, let me try mine...
 
You'll need some weird unicode characters in the file. Mine barfs on 𝒳
 
How weird? I've got ŵ and ş and ı -- is that weird enough?
Is that a mathematical [square thing], or a font saying sorry?
Presumably you're using a BOM?
@AndrewStacey OK, it autosaved the Welsh and Turkish stuff, just waiting for it to save your barf character. (Cut and paste works OK)
 
@Brent.Longborough Doubt it. What's a BOM? (Okay, I know what it stands for, just no idea what it does or how it might help me.)
 
@AndrewStacey It's a couple of standard control bytes at the start of the file. I think it helps editors treat it as UTF8 even when, say, it only contains stuff from ISO-8859-1 (The Western Europe stuff, without Wales).
@AndrewStacey Mine has autosaved without barfing.
 
@Brent.Longborough Emacs is fine when ordinarily saving and loading the file. But somehow, it doesn't work with auto-saving. It seems that it copies the file to a new buffer and then saves that with a special emacs encoding which doesn't recognise that character. Strange.
 
8:50 PM
@AndrewStacey Yes, it autosaves without a BOM, apparently, "barfing silently". Glad I don't rely on autosave too much, then
 
@JosephWright I saw it, yay! :)
 
@PauloCereda Don't like the downvotes on the question, of course, but what can I do
BTW, down to 438 unanswered
 
@JosephWright Neither do I, but we do know this user from past experiences. :)
 
@PauloCereda True, but doesn't matter: each question should be voted on merit, and nothing below -1
 
@JosephWright Agreed. :) Thankfully we don't have much downvoted questions. :)
 
9:09 PM
@JosephWright I agree with you on this; I think -1 is enough, but is this some general rule on these SX sites?
 
stupid system :-) just got this one for asking a question ... then eventually answering it myself and accpting my answer:
You've earned the "Revival" badge for Issues with TeX sub-formula formatting. See your profile.
3
 
@GonzaloMedina No, it's a 'local guideline', so of course depends on whether the voters are 'regulars'
@FrankMittelbach :-)
 
@JosephWright Even if the question is not well-formed, I tend to upvote it if the score is > -1. I think negative one is enough. :)
 
@PauloCereda Same here
Of course, it's better if the questions can be improved
 
@JosephWright Ah yes. :)
ooh I'm 800 from 10k. :P
 
9:13 PM
@JosephWright To know everything, young enough, he is
 
@PauloCereda Great
 
@PauloCereda Well deserved. Parabéns
 
@PauloCereda was that when you take credit cards?
 
@JosephWright, @Brent: It might take a lifetime. :)
@FrankMittelbach No, it's 20k. :) I want to have my credit card back. :)
 
@JosephWright i think some people don't like direct flames at holy grail ...
 
9:16 PM
3
Q: Latex editor for Linux that allows multiple instances

David DietrichI have always used Texmaker, but I'm at the point now where I am writing multiple documents at the same time (e.g., thesis and paper). Additionally, I like to have my work organized into different workspaces. This is where Texmaker fails me. It only allows a single instance of the application at...

Is this a dupe as suggested?
 
@FrankMittelbach Well, the OP has a "history", some readers may remember
 
@JosephWright: we could publish PLK's interview.
 
@PauloCereda Yes, looked fine to me
 
@JosephWright Any suggestions for the intro part? :)
 
@StefanKottwitz yes I see that ... and as a result I'm not too much bothered about the voting. it is one thing to say something is not optimal or bad + suggest somethign better and another to bitch about things without really see that the own arguments come from a different field
 
9:21 PM
@PauloCereda Well, @PLK is doing most of the biblatex work. @Audrey is the styles expert, while I'm involved to pick off the odd low level TeX issue or trace through awkward problems.
For me, biblatex works well so I don't want to commit too much time to it, but at the same time I think @PLK needs some support as he's primarily focussed on the Biber (Perl) side.
 
@JosephWright: How about this: Welcome to the TeXtalk! We have a very special guest for today: our friend Philip Kime, also known as PLK, our biber/biblatex expert. He's the project leader of the biblatex task force, together with Audrey and Joseph Wright, and a great Perl programmer. Get ready for this awesome interview!
 
@PauloCereda Great
 
TeX gurus report to your battle stations, please :P
 
@JosephWright Thanks! :)
 
4
Q: Advantages and disadvantages of fully expandable macros

Henry DeYoungAs I currently understand them, fully-expandable macros are analogous to pure/effect-free functions in functional programming. Correspondingly, things that are not expandable, such as \def, are effectful computations -- they can't be "evaluated" inside an \edef, for example. Effect-free functio...

 
9:26 PM
@percusse Yes I saw that
 
Paulo Cereda on August 06, 2012

Welcome to the TeXtalk! We have a very special guest for today: our friend Philip Kime, also known as PLK, our biber/biblatex expert. He’s the project leader of the biblatex task force, together with Audrey and Joseph Wright, and a great Perl programmer. Get ready for this awesome interview!

Dear friends, welcome to the TeXtalk! Our interviewee today is Philip Kime (PLK).

I think I should say a little bit perhaps about how I got involved as there are two important people to mention who aren’t here. I just want to say that that biber and biblatex owe a great deal to two people who are …

Great job, friends! :)
 
I'll write something tomorrow if the obvious candidates don't answer first
0
Q: Simplifying Manual Recursion

user1311390The following is literally copied/pasted out of a *.tex file: \newcommand{\bA}{\mathbf{A}} \newcommand{\bB}{\mathbf{B}} \newcommand{\bC}{\mathbf{C}} \newcommand{\bD}{\mathbf{D}} \newcommand{\bE}{\mathbf{E}} \newcommand{\bF}{\mathbf{F}} \newcommand{\bG}{\mathbf{G}} \newcommand{\bH}{\mathbf{H}} \n...

This has come up before, I'm sure
 
@JosephWright Ha ha ha.
 
@JosephWright It is indeed (an answer with egreg, IIRC). :)
 
9:29 PM
@AndrewStacey I see what you did there. :P
 
@JosephWright eheh.
 
How'm I doing?
 
I'll go l3 this time.
 
@percusse I'll go 4 no trumps.
 
@AndrewStacey I'll get another drink.
 
9:31 PM
13
A: A list of newcommand objects

egregHere's a more abstract (and quite shorter) way: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{xparse} \ExplSyntaxOn % #1 = command to use % #2 = optional prefix % #3 = list \NewDocumentCommand{\createbunch}{ m O{} m } { \clist_map_inline:nn { #3 } { \cs_new_protected:cpn { #2 ##1 } { #1 { ##1 } } } } ...

There's another one, but I can't find it.
 
@PauloCereda That's the one I was thinking of
 
27
Q: How can I specify a long list of math operators?

Scott MorrisonThe preambles of my LaTeX documents often include many many lines of \DeclareMathOperator instructions, e.g. \DeclareMathOperator{\Rep}{Rep} \DeclareMathOperator{\Tet}{Tet} \DeclareMathOperator{\Maps}{Maps} \DeclareMathOperator{\Diff}{Diff} Is there a nice way to map some macro over a list, so...

 
@AndrewStacey You already did it apparently
2
A: How can I specify a long list of math operators?

Andrew StaceyI'd probably do this differently if I were coding it today (as I've learnt a lot more about TeX in the last decade), but here's something like how I did it for my thesis: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \makeatletter \def\my@shift#1:#2.{#1} \def\my@trunc#1:#2.{#2} \def\my@void{}\r...

bah
nevermind
 
@percusse See, I distracted you with my amazing wit and so sneaked in the reference first.
 
@AndrewStacey Can you signal the waitress? I need something shaken but not stirred...
 
9:40 PM
Yay! Checksum is 456.
 
 
2 hours later…
11:37 PM
@percusse: Your code passed one more stress test (in pgfplotstable thing). I modified it for another kind of filtering.
 
@HarishKumar Great. It's actually Christian's greatness in efficiency. I just beat the hell out of it :)
@HarishKumar Thanks for the bounty by the way, it's very kind of you.
 
@percusse: Thanks to you and @christian both. I am off to have more tests and more filterings. Let you know the progress and difficulties if any (certianly thinking of troubling you then)
 
@HarishKumar Fire at will :)
 
Note to self: never put my computer in the same room as my PS3. :)
 
@PauloCereda PS3 outbeautied the mac right? :P
 
11:45 PM
@percusse: Ah. What else I could do.You bailed me out .
@percusse: With pleasure. Take aim and will fire.
 
@percusse Not yet, my Mac is still to be deployed. :)
 
@PauloCereda I'm trying to sell my old Samsung LED and buy a newer one. Then I'll buy a PS3 and never get a PhD.
 
@percusse <3
 
Pa@PauloCereda: It seems inlage 4 does not allow us to put any short cuts and tool bar buttons for user defined commands. I have discussed it with Nils Keller (the author). He says that he will give that option in inlage 5 (upcoming version). Hence, for the time being, it is simple. Just define a user command and use it fron the meny itself. I will send the write up may be tody or tomorrow.
@PauloCereda: pl. don't mind my typos.
 
@HarishKumar Wow, that sounds great. :)
@HarishKumar: is it a nice editor?
 
11:51 PM
I don't use it much though. But my students do it. They say it is nice. It can use mathinput panel of windows seven and features like that and you know, it is really easy for equations and sketches etc.
 
Ah I see. :)
 
@PauloCereda: For features -- inlage.com/home
 
A very bad examplefor commercializing your TeX related stuff
 
@percusse o.O
 
@percusse: you mean that eqnarray? Yes. bad command to be highlighted
 
11:55 PM
@HarishKumar Yep, it's like trying to sell a Porsche and mention that it's LPG-convertible.
 
@percusse: HaHa. LOL. It will be a boom...
 
Sub-Zero vs. Green Lantern! :)
 
Let me work some more :P
Good night!
 

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