Is anyone here familiar with the pst-solides3d package? I might have discovered some buggy behavior, but I'm not certain. Either way, though, the behavior is unfortunate.

@barznjy How is the View PDF command set up in Texmaker? Is a PDF created? (Look in the folder.)

@DavidCarlisle Hey, thanks! I had forgotten to downvote that one!

Morning all

@JosephWright Good morning! What are you going to do explosions with, today?

Morning

I'm having a slight problem with positioning an arc with tikz. In specific, I'd like to specify the endpoint. So far I can only define the start of the arc.

The tikz code is:

\begin{tikzpicture}[x={10pt},y={10pt}]

\draw [line width = 2mm, {latex}-{latex}] (5:10) arc [start angle=0, end angle=90, radius=10];
\draw [line width = 2mm, {latex}-{latex}] (-5:10) arc [start angle=0, end angle=-90, radius=10];

\draw [line width = 2mm, {latex}-{latex}] (5:-10) arc [start angle=180, end angle=270, radius=10];
\draw [line width = 2mm, {latex}-{latex}] (-5:-10) arc [start angle=180, end angle=90, radius=10];

\end{tikzpicture}

Hello all

Hi

@Argo, have you tried using the pgf commands, such as pgfpatharcto?

@JosephWright Being the maintainer of a quarter of the most-used packages surely has its drawbacks...

@StephanLehmke Yes

@StephanLehmke The LaTeX3 stuff is nerve-raking: if we break`l3kernel` then basically every doc using XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX will fail!

@JosephWright Somebody should pay you for this.

@JosephWright not sure it should have worked before, but it clearly did (nothing another 4 expandafter won't fix...)

I have a ver interesting question for all of you

what do you think is the best way to "attach" a digital version of a document to the printed one? Do you feel a CD should be used on the last page? Perhaps a USB? Stick an SD card?

@MarioS.E. Wouldn't a QR code be enough?

a QR code with the link to download it?

@StephanLehmke I was thinking about that too! hehehehehe

Why a QR code? Why not the URL in plain text?

@eiterorm Well one could have both. But the code saves typing.

@eiterorm don't you think it'll be too tedious to write that, and could even give way to "translate" errors?

@MarioS.E. but a lot more people can transcribe a plain text URL than can use a qr code (not everyone has a fancy phone;-)

@DavidCarlisle Exactly! that's why I have my doubts about the QR: you need a smart phone. The other types of media you just require a computer

Assuming you're using a URL with actual words, that shouldn't be a problem.

@eiterorm you mean like www.mywebsite.com?

@MarioS.E. Yes. Instead of www.sfgjh34579hbg.com

It depends on which service you're using to host the document, though.

What I feel is this: Someone in the near future is going to go to the library, search for the document and then they'll say: why is this not available online yet? I wish I had the digital version...

@MarioS.E. but the CD that was in the back of the latex companion was out of date before the first copies reached the bookshelves (still usable of course but texlive comes out every year and there is a lag of a few months between signing off the final copy and it actually reaching the shelves) so I'd assume internet access rather than actually freezing a copy (unless you explicitly want a frozen copy)

now, in this hypothetical case, most likely the person in question will have some kind of tablet or laptop computer

So... under this light... what would be the best option for the reader? Something USB compatible or SD card?

I'm thinking that CD is going out... and I've seen many computers don't have a CD drive nowadays

@MarioS.E. Ha, I usually never think about tablets, but that is indeed an important medium. So, with USB you'll rule out tablets, and with SD cards you'll rule out anything which doesn't have an empty slot of the right size.

@eiterorm hence, why I'm asking for your wisdom :)

@DavidCarlisle Yes, of course... and the copy of the document should be available at the digital library, but I'm thinking about a more archaic approach: someone actually going to the library!

@MarioS.E. Libraries usually have computers. So either a USB stick or a link to an online document should work for that scenario.

@MarioS.E. Do you actually expect a USB stick or SD card will stay in the book while in the library?

@StephanLehmke That's why I was thinking about getting scotch taped the SD card hehehehehe

I DO share your view about this: a digital version should be online, it's by far the best way to keep versions and to be easily available to all people

but I'm thinking about a really old-school approach: someone that goes to the library because the online site is down

that person HAS a tablet or a computer (and most likely even a smart phone)

and he/she needs access to the digital version (which, temporarily for some reason, is not available on the web)

@StephanLehmke Do you happen to know if there is a special bag or pouch for including these types of media into printed documents? I've only seen a kind of small foam circle where the CD could be inserted

@MarioS.E. I think it's much more probable that some medium vanishes from a library book than that an online site goes down. Especially if it's a specialised digital library: They have to guarantee the avaliability of PhD theses, for instance.

@MarioS.E. yes but either you attach the thing to the book by some sealed method, in which case they can't easily use it. Or you make it easily removable in which case someone will have removed it by the time your hypothetical person who wants it get there.

@MarioS.E. This sounds like a scenario for a university more than anything else. Most (all?) libraries I've been to (uni. or not) have computers. So a USB stick should work nicely. A SD card will require an SD card reader, which I wouldn't expect to find on all computers (including laptops).

@DavidCarlisle @Stephan Well, yes... that's one of the things I fear the most

@eiterorm So... stick a USB penn drive should be the best approach?

@MarioS.E. Actually, I think a link to a digital version should be more than enough. If you use a stable and well-known hosting service where your document will have a permanent link, you could print a QR code (for the smartphone users) and the same URL in plain text (for the laptop users). But if you insist on something offline, I'd say a USB medium will be more versatile.

@MarioS.E. at our faculty, you have to upload pdf and zip with attachments to university repository and include CD to printed version. these CD's are then removed from printed copies and destroyed :)

@michal.h21 I was thinking about it: this is perhaps a librarian's problem hehehehehe

@JosephWright you have inherited all blame for biblatex tex code haven't you? Apparently you're patching tabularx.... tex.stackexchange.com/questions/176707/…

@DavidCarlisle Well I'm involved in biblatex but mainly only to crack 'tough; problems

@DavidCarlisle I struggle to see a link to biblatex from the MWE!

@JosephWright That's the "tough" part of the problem :-)

@JosephWright MWE:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tabularx}

\usepackage{biblatex}

    ! Package biblatex Error: Patching 'tabularx' failed.

That's the trouble with packages that check definitions before overwriting them, it means you just add \relax anywhere it all breaks

@DavidCarlisle Not that!

@DavidCarlisle Don't add \relax then.

@DavidCarlisle No checking, but it is trying to patch which obviously fails if you completely alter the definition!

@StephanLehmke replace \relax by anything, still true:-)

@DavidCarlisle :-)

@JosephWright it shouldn't patch it should use \def and trample all over the old one:-)

@JosephWright I refactor one internal undocumented macro:(

@DavidCarlisle You should rewrite all your packages xii style, that will teach'em ;-)

@StephanLehmke very tempting

@DavidCarlisle Looking at the biblatex patch, the problem is that memoir has also got the same code in it, so you've now lead to two different definitions of \TX@endtabularx 'in the wild'!

@JosephWright joking aside I guess one or other needs an update but if I change tabularx for the original MWE biblatex would have to change twice unless it's more careful to check variants (also why does it have to patch anyway) and we don't yet really have a protocol for updating tabularx without reving the whole of latex... (ltnews21 says we plan to have such a thing but....)

@DavidCarlisle Patching in biblatex seems to be to do with citation tracking: PL didn't really add that many notes on these things

  \ifdef\TX@endtabularx % tabularx/memoir
    {\pretocmd\TX@endtabularx
      {\addtocounter{tabx@nest}{1}}% track nestes tabularx environments
      {}
      {\blx@err@patch{'tabularx'}}%
      % no need to conditionalise on top-level tabx as the search/replace
      % will only match once anyway
     \patchcmd\TX@endtabularx
      {\edef\TX@ckpt{\cl@@ckpt}}
      {\edef\TX@ckpt{\cl@@ckpt\abx@resttrackers}%
        \abx@savetrackers}
      {}
      {\blx@err@patch{'tabularx'}}%
     \apptocmd\TX@endtabularx

@JosephWright will look tonight see if I can work out what that's doing. It looks "inventive" to me:)

@DavidCarlisle Like I say, I've no other notes to go on: there's no mention of tabularx in the biblatex manual, so probably this is there to fix some bug PL spotted once several years ago

@JosephWright does biblatex use tables at all, or is this some unrelated "fix" that is tacked on to the biblatex code just in case?

@DavidCarlisle Nothing to do with tables per se: the trackers are for things like op cit.

@DavidCarlisle I'm not clear on what there is a need to save/reset the trackers!

@DavidCarlisle What does \TX@ckpt do, anyway?

@JosephWright Isn't tabularx evaluating its content twice? So if \cite keeps track whether it was already used, you never get the "first" version (as it appears only in the "measuring" step).

@JosephWright depends what what do if they have side effects which means they can't be activated multiple times as tabularx does trial settings... TX@cpt is code stolen from \include that resets all counters that have been at teh beginning of each trial

@StephanLehmke Ah, that would make sense

@StephanLehmke 3 or 4 times, but yes

@DavidCarlisle Indeed, this all makes sense then: the counters have to be left alone

@JosephWright latex defined counters are in the reset list anyway so tabularx would reset them, but of course everyone uses \newcount\foo instead of \newcounter{foo} so tabularx doesn't know about those

@JosephWright what we need is a format that undefines the low level commands and forces people to use the documented API....

@DavidCarlisle Not just counters, also flags, etc.

@DavidCarlisle Also one that provides not only global counters, then :-)

@DavidCarlisle PL was pretty good at this: he uses \newcounter where appropriate

@JosephWright but what happens in \caption that also sets its argument twice (usually)

I really wish I knew what had happened to him!

@JosephWright yes strange/worrying

@DavidCarlisle For floats, it looks like the trackers are turned off anyway

  \apptocmd\@floatboxreset
    {\boolfalse{citetracker}%
     \boolfalse{pagetracker}}
    {}
    {\blx@err@patch{floats}}%

@JosephWright Reasonable, as the position of the float is flexible; no way to know in which order citations are going to appear.

@StephanLehmke Yes, exactly, and in the biblatex manual :-)

Quack.

@PauloCereda A duck

@JosephWright <3

@Joseph: Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?

:)

@PauloCereda Joseph and David seem to be on a mission to break something new in the LaTeX kernel every day ;-)

@StephanLehmke LOL

Specially David, of course.

@PauloCereda Well there simply is more by him to break...

@StephanLehmke After all, it's all his fault. :)

@StephanLehmke just because you hide your code, doesn't mean that we don't know that same isn't true for you:-)

@StephanLehmke xmltex next on my list:-)

@DavidCarlisle Well in fact this is one advantage of having one monolithic package: No need for one module to patch another one...

@David: 99 bugs in the code repository, 99 bugs in the repository. You get one, fix it, push the new code, 101 bugs in the code repository.

@DavidCarlisle Practically everything we use outside DocScape is frozen, especially xmltex which was patched by the other David ;-)

Apart from this, I'm of course busy introducing new bugs day by day, which customers then pay to get removed ;-)

@StephanLehmke same here except you get money, I get badges

@DavidCarlisle Oh yes you got a tick for fixing your own bug. That's a trick which is a bit harder for @egreg to pull off ;-)

@StephanLehmke I hope you don't mind if I adjust your English a bit: s/fixing your own bug/kindly supplying a fix to someone's unauthorised redefinition of the old code to work with the new/

@DavidCarlisle Well it's always hard for a non native speaker to find the right words.

@StephanLehmke yes I'm sure you meant what I said.

@StephanLehmke I don't do LaTeXe2e ;-)

@ThomasF.Sturm hi:-)

Hi :-)

@JosephWright you can't even spell it

@DavidCarlisle Maybe the french version.

@DavidCarlisle :-)

@StephanLehmke as successful as Concorde?

@DavidCarlisle You mean the Brits built a better supersonic airliner?

In fact the Concorde was a British-French co-production.

@StephanLehmke yes that's what I meant; the e at the end was somewhat controversial at the time

@DavidCarlisle Ah Ok, didn't get the joke :-)

@ThomasF.Sturm if I change tabularx as in the answer I break biblatex as you note, and if biblatex changes to work with that it breaks memoir (which has a copy of the old code) Of course any of these could have conditional code and patch old and new versions but especially when combined with testing for loading tabularx first or last it gets out of hand. I'll look tonight to see if I can see a direct patch to tcolorbox so it would work with old and new tabularx without testing for either

@DavidCarlisle You are faster in answering than me in typing the question ;-)

@DavidCarlisle In fact, I was trying ask exactly that ... didn't know that hitting 'return' sends the message right away ... ;-)

@ThomasF.Sturm actually I didn't see your removed text, but I guess I answered it anyway?

@DavidCarlisle Yes, you did :-) Luckily, you are telephatic. That makes it easy for me to ask question without typing them in English ... :-)

@DavidCarlisle I hate it when I see a typo in a sent message I cannot edit again ... grmbl ...

@ThomasF.Sturm you get a few minutes to edit chat lines (see?)

How come my boxes aren't prefectly aligned with perfect space between them?

Pic:

Code:

\tikzstyle{startstop} = [rectangle, rounded corners, minimum width=2.5cm, minimum height={10pt},text centered, draw=black, fill=blue!30]

\tikzstyle{io} = [trapezium, trapezium left angle=70, trapezium right angle=110, minimum width=3cm, minimum height=1cm, text centered, draw=black, fill=blue!30]

\begin{tikzpicture}[x={10pt},y={10pt}, align = center]
%\draw[step={20pt},gray,very thin] (0,0) grid (20,40); % grid

% akser
\draw[line width=3pt,-{latex}] (0,1) -- (0,18);
\draw[line width=3pt,-{latex}] (0,1) -- (30,1);

@Argo You forgot to give the perfect option ;-)

Dang it you had me there

Sorry, that was too tempting... Try a \strut in front of the text in every of the startstop nodes.

Hm that removes the vertical space between the nodes completely

\vphantom{g}

I'd like to have the same space (2.5pt) but it seems it's getting bigger and bigger.

Smaller and smaller that is

Well it seems the height of the node depends on the text content while you are using absolute positions, so you can't really expect a fixed distance. Maybe you can give the node height as an option?

Hmm

The height of the highest node (Vurdering) is bigger than the lowest (Viden)

I've defined a minimum height for the tikzstyle

I think there is a little bug in SE interface: I just accepted my own answer for a old question and then, 2s after, changed my mind and accept another answer. The system give me +2 of reputation and never take it back...

As far as I can see, you are putting the nodes 25pt apart vertically, so to get 2.5pt distance, you should use a fixed height of 22.5pt. The minimum height of 10pt probably does nothing.

@ppr If you feel bad about getting extra points you could make yourself feel better by giving a bounty to me to get rid of them?

Try height={22.5pt} in the node style.

@StephanLehmke no such option :(

@Argo Strange.

@DavidCarlisle :-)

@Argo Then use minimum height={22.5pt} and put the text like this: \raisebox{0pt}[0pt][0pt]{\Large Vurdering}.

Hmm that gives me a nice error about a missing node label

\documentclass[tikz,border=2mm]{standalone}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\tikzset{startstop/.style={rectangle, rounded corners, minimum width=2.5cm, minimum height={10pt},text centered, draw=black, fill=blue!30,font=\Large,text depth=2pt,on grid},
io/.style={trapezium, trapezium left angle=70, trapezium right angle=110, minimum width=3cm, minimum height=1cm, text centered, draw=black, fill=blue!30}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x={10pt},y={10pt}, align = center,node distance=1cm and 1.5cm]

@Argo Try the above.

@TorbjørnT. At last someone who knows TikZ ;-)

@TorbjørnT. that's... Pretty cleaver, thanks!

Why on earth didn't I do it like this the first time

I should probably stop using absolute positions and use more cleaver stuff like that

@Argo Relative positioning does make some things easier. Note that I also changed the startstop style a bit.

Yeah I noticed that, everything seems to be exactly as I wanted

While you're here, got time for another question?

@PauloCereda tex.stackexchange.com/users/51572/tdidriksen

@DavidCarlisle ooh a duck!

Trying to build an environment for this answer: tex.stackexchange.com/a/176746/3954, but the following just seems to affect the plus sign and not the minus sign:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyvrb}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents*}{j0.2000_B0.0000_sweeps500_avaft100}
--+-+---+-+-----+++++-+++-+++-
+--++---++-+-+++--++++++-++--+
-+---+--+-+++++-+-+--+-+-++-+-
+-+---++++-+-++-+++-++--++-+++
+-++++++++--++-++++-+++++++++-
---++++--+--+---++----+---+++-
---+------+-+--++--++-+++++--+
++------+++---+--+---+++-+--+-
+--+++-+++--+--+-+-+++-------+
-+--+-++-++-+------+--+--+++++
-------++---++--++---+-+-+---+
++++++--+++-+--+-+-++++--++-++

Any idea why?

@GonzaloMedina Er is it intentional you're using \SumSign both times?

@GonzaloMedina Yes, Verbatim activates -

@StephanLehmke No, a typo; the second \SumSign should be \MinusSign.

@egreg Ah, I see. I haven't been able to find an easy solution to this. Perhaps you can suggest one?

tex.stackexchange.com/a/141275/19356 can be used to answer this question: tex.stackexchange.com/q/176779/19356

@GonzaloMedina Just turn my solution into an environment, it's really easy.

@egreg Yes, but I was thinking about an independent solution; it wouldn't feel OK (at least not to me) to provide a simple variation of your answer.

@GonzaloMedina I was joking. You're trying to use the wrong tool.

@egreg So, there's no way to do it using the verbatim environments from fancyvrb?

@GonzaloMedina I don't know. I'd have to think about it.

@GonzaloMedina here it is

\makeatletter
\newenvironment{MyVerb}
  {
    \def\verbatim@nolig@list{\do\`\do\<\do\>\do\,\do\'}
    \catcode`+=\active
    \catcode`-=\active
    \setlength\fboxsep{2pt}
    \offinterlineskip
    \VerbatimEnvironment
    \begin{Verbatim}
  }
  {\end{Verbatim}}
\makeatother

Now, please, use the right tool for the job. ;-)

Sneaky ack in the classroom.

Gonzalo update: -332; if nothing special happens, we should have a party on Wednesday!

@egreg: leave it to me. :)

@PauloCereda Weren't you sick? I hope you're better.

@egreg: leave it to me. :)

This is coming...

@Werner mixed feelings

@SeanAllred I know... you can log in every day for about 3 months and suddenly possess mod-like qualities... doesn't sound right.

@Werner Exactly. I don't think just having a gold badge should do this—I mean, there are badges for having really popular questions. Just because it's a good question doesn't mean you know what's good for the community at large.

Here is one response:

@Were

Er... keyboards. @Werner It seems that this only applies to tag-badges, and possibly even restricted to posts with that tag.

It's making marginally more sense. Marginally.