TeX, LaTeX and Friends

2:13 AM

@percusse Great sentence in your answer for tex.stackexchange.com/questions/326787/… "There is no shortcut in TeX that would save you time. In the long run the house always wins." It would make a great t-shirt.

Johannes_B

4:03 AM

@StefanKottwitz No :-(

wilx

7:48 AM

I want to make the Lua code that implements some of the Czech language typographical rules into a package. How do I do that? Where do I start?

Joseph Wright

@wilx Erm, you might need to be a bit more specific!

wilx

@JosephWright I have implemented two Lua hooks in LuaLaTeX that enforce two simple Czech language typographical rules. But it is just a bit of code in my .tex source. What would it take to make the hooks into a reusable package?

Joseph Wright

@wilx You just need a small loader and the .lua code, so two files (I'd have the Lua separate from the TeX). I would consider looking to see if this could be integrated in babel ...

wilx

@JosephWright Can you point to an existing good example of this? :)

Johannes_B

8:23 AM

@JosephWright @StefanKottwitz Should i comment on the meta answer? meta.tex.stackexchange.com/a/6848/37907

Honestly, i cannot see why the user is so upset.

Is it the same user as in latex-community.org/forum/…?

Henri Menke

@Johannes_B I don't think that my comment is an answer, so no, I won't answer.

Johannes_B

@HenriMenke Ok. We discussed a few days back here in chat. @Kurt said it would be better to add an answer and warn others that the site is probably a scam. I would simply close though.

Henri Menke

@Johannes_B Yes, that's probably the most sensible solution.

@Johannes_B I voted as unclear.

Johannes_B

@HenriMenke Allright.

user227867

9:24 AM

@Johannes_B There are many crazy people on SE who get upset for no reasons.

Johannes_B

@JasperLoy I get upset by templates :-)

user227867

Online, people can say whatever they want because they think their identity is concealed.

user227867

So they are less inhibited and start to show all their stupidity.

user227867

Personally, I find TeX SE to be the most friendly and most professional SE site. Well done!

Johannes_B

@JasperLoy Nothing to do with stupidity i think. It is the fact that people are emotional, but the web cannot transport emotions. The OP might have had a bad day, or was in a bad mood and just was hurt. I never meant to hurt him. Stuff like that happens.

@JasperLoy :-)

user227867

9:28 AM

@Johannes_B Are you the coauthor of LaTeX Companion? So honoured to see you!

nima

Hello everyone

Joseph Wright

@Johannes_B @JasperLoy (etc.) Bit busy ATM but I'll look later if @StefanKottwitz doesn't beat me to it!

@nima Hello

nima

I have a question about installing TeX.

Joseph Wright

@nima Fire away

nima

I was obsessed with instaling only tex on my system. just tex. vvery accidentally I found out there is historic ftp for tex: ftp.tug.org

user227867

9:33 AM

Yes, and?

Joseph Wright

@nima 'Just' TeX is a bit of a broad statement: I guess you mean you want plain but not LaTeX?

nima

@JosephWright yes

Joseph Wright

@nima OK, just install TeX Live but with the minimal set up

nima

and i want to be able to add them manually to my system.

Joseph Wright

@nima Like I say, for a minimal set up install TeX Live but use the advanced installation and do a custom install: I do this for some automated testing

nima

9:34 AM

I mean manually plain tex, metafont, pdftex

Joseph Wright

@nima What do you mean 'manually': what's wrong with just using TeX Live?

Johannes_B

@JasperLoy No, i am not :-D

Joseph Wright

@nima You can't just download the binaries on their own: there is a structure that's needed

user227867

@Johannes_B Oh, wrong person then =) Too few names in the world.

nima

aha, I wanted to know how in tte past people encountered TeX.

Joseph Wright

9:37 AM

@nima Using a Pascal compiler :-)

user227867

You need a time machine to go back to the past. =)

nima

Could you please tell me what is this link: ctan.org/pkg/tex

@JasperLoy the question meant to act as one:)

Joseph Wright

@nima It's the Knuth sources on CTAN, but getting the WEB sources to compile is non-trivial

Kurt

@HenriMenke I voted too

nima

@JosephWright ok, if I use texlive and do a minimal installation I will get plain tex and no macro packages right?

macro format, sorry

Johannes_B

9:42 AM

@nima Plain is also a bunch of macros packed together.

nima

@Johannes_B what macros are these? sorry that I insist, it is an experiment.

Joseph Wright

@nima Plain TeX is the TeX90 (Knuth TeX) engine with a set of pre-built macros. If you want just the primitives, do tex -ini to get IniTeX: TeX with no pre-loaded format, so no macros defined at all

2

Johannes_B

@nima Just have a look at plain.tex or the texbook.

@nima Using plain is fine. Using just the primitives is crazy. Unless you want to create an alternative to LaTeX.

Joseph Wright

@Johannes_B Even LaTeX was originally a set of macros loaded on top of plain (OK, a long time ago)

nima

that's the point, I found a i think 84 publication of The TexBook in the university library and wanted to read the book.

Kurt

9:48 AM

@Johannes_B I was not pinged about that post in meta, but I think it would be more bad to comment that (In Deutsch: Das wäre nur Öl ins Feuer gießen). I do not know why he is angry about my comments or yours, perhaps he explained it later after a calm down ...

Joseph Wright

@nima Yes, good plain if you want to do development

Johannes_B

@Kurt Same here. I don't think i should comment.

@nima You can find a more recent version of the texbook as a tex file, the source. You cannot compile it to pdf, though.

nima

@JosephWright So is the book about primitive or plain/ yeah i found it and tried to compile it and knuth was there and didn't allow it.

Kurt

@Johannes_B I guess, as you told earlier, he had a real bad day ...

Joseph Wright

@nima If you wan the text compiled, you have to have the physical book

@nima If you want to know about primitives, TeX by Topic is free and very good

nima

9:57 AM

I install with this option.

Joseph Wright

@nima If you only want plain, that's the way to go

nima

@JosephWright thank you, just as the last question for now, then after this installation how can i add eplain or other macro formats other than latex?

for example eplain, lollipop or others?

Joseph Wright

@nima You can use the graphical manager or just tlmgr at the command line

@nima For example tlmgr install lollipop

nima

@JosephWright thank you very much.

@Johannes_B thanks.

user 1618033

10:48 AM

Hi people!

I need some help with a large file TEX, it looks like I'm in a deep sh*t, I'm not able to identity the mistake that prevent me from running the file.

Most probably there is something very simple but I don't know what I did.

Joseph Wright

@user1618033 What's happening?

user 1618033

When I run the file I receive this message

!Undefined control sequence.

l.130 \newl

Joseph Wright

@user1618033 OK, so line 130 is the place to look

user 1618033

I deleted the aux file and thing repets again.

@JosephWright All is fine there I never changed anything in that place for a long period of time.

I wonder how to reverse the process, if this is possible, and reach the point where I did the mistake.

Torbjørn T.

@user1618033 What is in that line then?

user 1618033

10:54 AM

It's a simple text.

(I mean at that line there is a simple text)

Torbjørn T.

@user1618033 No macros? You don't have a \newline macro where a space has sneaked in, so it's \newl ine, or something? Of course, it doesn't have to be the .tex file the ilne number is referring to, can you show the .log file?

user 1618033

Sure. Just a bit since my work is on another computer.

The last lines in the log (supposing not all is needed)

("C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\tools\indentfirst.sty"
Package: indentfirst 1995/11/23 v1.03 Indent first paragraph (DPC)
)
("C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\tex\latex\footmisc\footmisc.sty"
Package: footmisc 2011/06/06 v5.5b a miscellany of footnote facilities
\FN@temptoken=\toks21
\footnotemargin=\dimen152
\c@pp@next@reset=\count127
Package footmisc Info: Declaring symbol style bringhurst on input line 855.
Package footmisc Info: Declaring symbol style chicago on input line 863.
Package footmisc Info: Declaring symbol style wiley on input line 872.

Johannes_B

@user1618033 The most important thing are the ten lines above and below the error message LaTeX gives you.

user 1618033

It is possible I simply placed or missed a math symbol somewhere or anything like that. It happened to me in the past, but now it's hard to find where the issue is.

@Johannes_B Is it a way to reverse the process? Until before the error happened?

Johannes_B

@user1618033 Yes, find the issue and remove it. That should be easy. Move \end{document} one block up, compile. Error persists? Move the line up another block, compile. Go on till the error disappeared, it was in the last block. Examine that block, the issue is there.

3

Paulo Cereda

11:07 AM

@Johannes_B ooooh I like this approach very much.

It's a penguin strategy.

<3

user 1618033

@Johannes_B Clever idea. Thanks! I have a document with 14257 lines.

Let me see how it works. I return soon!

Johannes_B

@user1618033 You can also do place is in line 7000, if the error still appears, it is somewhere between 1 and 7000. So place \end{document} on line 3500.

user 1618033

11:24 AM

@Johannes_B Thank you very much for the brilliant, simpel idea you gave me. Shame on me I didn't think of that. :-)

Thanks all for the support!

:31958126, @TorbjørnT. thanks a lot!

@Johannes_B I'm not an expert in Latex, I actually know just a tiny bit, but this idea of yours worked so damn well! Thanks again!

The problem was that I have had \begin{equation*} followed by an empty line and then \end{equation*}.

Letting a free space inbetween was the precise issue.

Johannes_B

11:39 AM

@user1618033 It is not my idea :-) But glad it worked.

user 1618033

@Johannes_B hehe. Anyway, good that you saved my day from being totally ruined. :-)

user227867

12:13 PM

@user1618033 I see you are here! They don't know you are a math genius!

barbara beeton

12:30 PM

@PauloCereda -- actually, the strategy existed before linux appeared on the scene. (only the command to be inserted then was "\bye".) an alternate strategy, "divide and conquer", is described by @Johannes_B a few lines down from your comment. it too is very useful!

i'd like to close the question tex.stackexchange.com/q/326814 as it has been closed based on comments, but i can't find a good duplicate. the problem was that table floats were getting out of order, and the best approach was to get rid of the table wrapper and simply put them in-line. of course, the "canonical" answer is at tex.stackexchange.com/q/39017 , but that's overkill, and doesn't handle this situation well. any suggestions?

Johannes_B

12:54 PM

201

Q: Keeping tables/figures close to where they are mentioned

Is there any package or a method to force LaTeX to keep floating environments like table and figure closer to where they are declared?

barbara beeton

@StefanKottwitz -- you might be able to help with this: tex.stackexchange.com/q/326867 . (not answer the question, but comment on how the image was created.)

percusse

@PauloCereda meta.tex.stackexchange.com/questions/6847/…

@barbarabeeton also known as bisection method or line search in other circles

barbara beeton

@Johannes_B -- i looked at that one, but rejected it because the best solution for the cited question is mentioned only in the very last answer; of course, i could link to that particular answer, but i was hoping for something more "direct". (there really are times when it's best to omit floats altogether.)

Johannes_B

@barbarabeeton That should be fixed, i added it to the top answer.

@barbarabeeton Though the edit was just a quick thing. It could need some work, maybe even its own little section.

barbara beeton

@Johannes_B -- the information is useful, but is still rather hidden. it deserves a section of its own, i think.

Johannes_B

1:05 PM

@barbarabeeton I am just editing.

@barbarabeeton tex.stackexchange.com/a/2282/37907 Can you check please?

barbara beeton

@Johannes_B -- i like it. thanks.

Johannes_B

@barbarabeeton Happy the answer is a bit better.

@StefanKottwitz This one is for you :-)

0

Q: Creating a title page like a book

after looking over internet all the day and trying stuff, i can't create a beautiful title page like this book. So i'm basically trying to get something with a pictures, and not a white background. I tried using the wallpaper package with a black pictures, but after i can't add blue box with t...

titles

barbara beeton

@Johannes_B -- now he's got two pings on the same question.

Johannes_B

@barbarabeeton Oh, i haven't noticed :-) Sorry

@Johannes_B «It is not the answer that counts, but the question» So here it works the opposite way as the other SE communities? Good to know, I didn't realize. — Andrea Lazzarotto 31 mins ago

Paulo Cereda

1:41 PM

@percusse You know me well, sir. :)

@barbarabeeton Ah indeed. :)

wilx

2:04 PM

Damn. I cannot figure out why is my figure/image not being placed onto another page but instead it overflows into footer and down over the bottom of the page.

Hmm, if I change \begin{figure}[htbp] into \begin{figure}[tbp] then the image is placed on the top of the next page but the text of the previous page overflows into the footer instead.

This is insane.

Torbjørn T.

@wilx You don't have an \enlargethispage lying around do you? (Probably a silly question.)

wilx

@TorbjørnT. Nope.

This is mostly Pandoc generated.

But I have my own header.tex included in preamble...

Torbjørn T.

@wilx Someone else might be able to guess, but I have no idea. Seeing the code could of course be helpful.

wilx

@TorbjørnT. Well, it would be large. Let me see if I can reduce it first.

Vrouvrou

3:21 PM

please how to write this

yo'

@Vrouvrou {\overline{L^\infty(\Omega)}}^{\lVert\cdot\rVert_{(\Phi)}} but if you can't make it, you better re-read some introductory book, IMHO. Sorry I gotta go now

wilx

I'll try TeX.SE itself.

egreg

3:47 PM

@Vrouvrou Change notation. ;-)

@Vrouvrou See tex.stackexchange.com/questions/151095/…

David Carlisle

@user1618033 that is an error but should not generate the error you stated about \newl

user227867

I think @egreg needs to put a picture of himself here, like @DavidCarlisle.

egreg

@JasperLoy You can get from @DavidCarlisle a confirmation that I do use a picture of myself

wilx

0

Q: Figure/image is overflowing bottom of page

I have a MWE which results in a PDF where on page 2, second image overflows the page at bottom. I have replaced the images with tcolorbox in the MWE: \documentclass[fontsize=13pt,czech,DIV=11,paper=A4,parskip=half,footnotes=multiple]{scrartcl} \usepackage{amssymb,amsmath} \usepackage{ifxetex,ifl...

floats

Alan Munn

@JasperLoy Like a good copper roof, @egreg has turned green with age.

egreg

3:56 PM

@AlanMunn Like my parish church dome

Alan Munn

@egreg Exactly!

egreg

@AlanMunn Giuseppe Tartini got married in this church. :)

Alan Munn

@JasperLoy And @DavidCarlisle 's picture is from when the world was black and white. calvin-and-hobbes-comic-strips.blogspot.com/2011/11/…

@egreg Is he also buried there?

Paulo Cereda

@egreg Who?

Alan Munn

@egreg According to Wikipedia, he was skilled at fencing.

egreg

4:03 PM

@AlanMunn No, he's in a small church dedicated to S. Catherine (of Alexandria) it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiesa_di_Santa_Caterina_(Padova)

@AlanMunn It's not far from the house where Galileo Galilei lived; his children were baptized in that church.

Paulo Cereda

Fortune presents:
	USEFUL PHRASES IN ESPERANTO, #2.

^Cu tiu loko estas okupita?		Is this seat taken?
^Cu vi ofte venas ^ci-tien?		Do you come here often?
^Cu mi povas havi via telelonnumeron?	May I have your phone number?
Mi estas komputilisto.			I work with computers.
Mi legas multe da scienca fikcio.	I read a lot of science fiction.
^Cu necesas ke vi eliras?		Do you really have to be going?

[paulo@cambridge ~] $

egreg

@AlanMunn Galileo's house was in what's now called “via Galileo Galilei”, also very near to “il Santo”.

@AlanMunn Still a well preserved medieval part of the town.

Alan Munn

5:52 PM

@JosephWright I just came across a chemistry.se question on 'molarity' vs 'molality'. This must cause no end of trouble for Chinese and Japanese speaking chemists giving talks in English. I guess context will clear it up most times.

egreg

6:04 PM

@AlanMunn Discuss the morality of distinguishing between molarity and molality.

Alan Munn

@egreg :)

@egreg A Brazilian friend whose spoken English isn't very good gave a talk and all of her data was divided into 'urban and rural areas'. 'rural' is a killer word for Brazilians, as @PauloCereda can probably attest (the reason is different, since in Br. Portuguese, [h] and [r] aren't distinct, and 'l' turns into [u] at the end of a word.).

Ulrike Fischer

6:44 PM

@wilx Is there a longtable on the page? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/203629/…

wilx

@UlrikeFischer I have seen this question/answer. I am unable to patch my longtable.sty with the diff that is there. I have no idea what am I doing.

Paulo Cereda

7:49 PM

@AlanMunn Oh my!

yo'

@AlanMunn well, as long as they don't say "dzissss" like many French, Czech and Russian... These two different "th" sounds are crazy for many!

Alan Munn

@yo' That just sounds fancy. :)

Paulo Cereda

@yo' Ze table!

Alan Munn

@PauloCereda Ze comfy shair.

Paulo Cereda

@AlanMunn :)

yo'

7:51 PM

@AlanMunn Ze comfy shairrrrr if they're from ze suuz

Alan Munn

@yo' Bah tchê!

yo'

@AlanMunn now I finally got lost :-p

Alan Munn

@yo' Ooops, wrong south...only @PauloCereda will get this.

Paulo Cereda

@AlanMunn Tom won't probably get the reference, although I admit it's trilegal. :)

Johannes_B

IT IS RAINING :-D

Alan Munn

8:03 PM

@Johannes_B Heavy enough so that you have to yell, I see.

Johannes_B

@AlanMunn It is so freaking hot, i am just glad. Ask @Christian.

yo'

@AlanMunn after a long enough time that it's worth it I suppose is the explanation :-)

@Johannes_B 10pm, outside temp 27C, inside temp 28C here ... :-(

Johannes_B

@yo' 26 C inside. Still enough. :-/

Alan Munn

@Johannes_B @yo' Wimps. :)

yo'

@AlanMunn this?

Weakly interacting massive particles

In particle physics and astrophysics, weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, are among the last hypothetical particle physics candidates for dark matter. The term “WIMP” is given to a dark matter particle that was produced by falling out of thermal equilibrium with the hot dense plasma of the early universe, although it is often used to refer to any dark matter candidate that interacts with standard particles via a force similar in strength to the weak nuclear force. Its name comes from the fact that obtaining the correct abundance of dark matter today via thermal production requires a...

Johannes_B

8:07 PM

@yo' :-)

I am sweating. :-(

yo'

@Johannes_B tell me that. When I take a shower in the evening, I'm all sweaty in the morning :-( And tomorrow I play the organ at a funeral, which means, moreover, black clothes, long sleeve and long trousers...

Alan Munn

@yo' :)

Johannes_B

@AlanMunn As you may know, i am Gundar. My roots are that of the vikings. I am used to a colder climate by definition.

Alan Munn

@yo' s/that/about it/

Johannes_B

@yo' Funeral at a monday?

yo'

8:09 PM

@AlanMunn thanks, I'll try to remember

@Johannes_B yep. It was more practical than Saturday since the summer holidays end this weekend

Alan Munn

@yo' Ar there particular things you play just for funerals?

yo'

@AlanMunn usually not. Mostly the family choose hymns from the book, and then I have something ready for preludium, but that is again a hymn usually, I prefer it this way.

This funeral is, however, strange. This nice man knew he was dying and he chose the hymns himself in advance, and asked me directly to play the organ at his funeral.

Alan Munn

@yo' I see. It's nice that the family get to choose.

@yo' Did you know him well, or did he just know you as the organist of the church?

Johannes_B

@yo' How bad would it be to ask for that one AC/DC song?

yo'

@AlanMunn yeah. Usually they don't know quite what to choose, so the minister suggests something to them, there are "funeral evergreens" that are used quite often (not that I object, it's usually very emotional -- even for me as the organist -- so it's easier to place pieces I can play from memory)

Alan Munn

8:14 PM

@yo' Yes, my condolences too.

yo'

@AlanMunn I knew him quite well, we drew very close as he was from a musical family and played the organ himself occasionally in the church

Johannes_B

@yo' Sorry to hear that. My condolences. :-/

yo'

@Johannes_B I'm afraid I don't know "that one AC/DC song"

@Johannes_B thank you

Johannes_B

@yo' Would be Highway to hell. If i knew i am dying, i just want to have a last bit of fun.

yo'

@Johannes_B ah this one. Well, I think it would be considered inappropriate for a funeral here, "by habits". For one, I wouldn't play such a song at a funeral, for the text.

Johannes_B

8:18 PM

@yo' What if it would be my favourite song and i want to share it with my friends/family? Kind of my last wish?

yo'

@Johannes_B Do you plan to have a church funeral? :-D

Johannes_B

@yo' Well, right now, i don't intend to die for a while. But if it happens suddenly ... Tata and farewell. Gone.

yo'

@Johannes_B :)

now I better go I think

good bye

Johannes_B