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Alan Munn
Alan Munn
1:24 AM
7
Q: Is there a way to have an "empty" environment to merely limit scope of declarations?

merlin2011I am fairly new to LaTeX, so I apologize if this is a beginner question, but I have not found a good way to query for it otherwise. I have observed that when I use an environment like \begin{itemize}...\end{itemize}, I can place \newcommand inside the environment, which are scoped to the environ...

macros environments
 
kahen
kahen
Or just... \begingroup ... \endgroup?!
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
@tohecz mentioned in the comment that you can also use \begin{@empty} ... \end{@empty}, and indeed this works, as does \begin{empty} ... \end{empty}, which raises two questions: (i) why does @empty work without using \makeatletter and (ii) is @empty equivalent to empty?
@kahen You caught me mid question. :)
 
kahen
kahen
Alan: because \csname @stuff\endcsname doesn't require @ to have a regular catcode
and that is effectively what \begin{foo} does: save name of current environment, start a group, then do \csname foo\endcsname
actually the last two might be swapped. i'm a bit rusty on my latex internals
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
@kahen Yes, now I see \show\begin gives me the details. Thanks.
 
kahen
kahen
a side effect of using \end{@empty} will be that \end@empty will be defined to \relax
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
1:30 AM
@kahen And why does empty also work?
 
kahen
kahen
Anything works. If foo is undefined, then \csname foo\endcsname is effectively the same as \def\foo{\relax}\foo
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
@kahen Not quite: \begin{fubar} yields LaTeX Error: Environment fubar undefined.
 
kahen
kahen
This is why the LaTeX test \@ifdefined takes the false branch when used on \relax.
Try \def\fubar{\relax} \begin{fubar} and you'll see what I mean
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
@kahen Sure, I see that. But I'm wondering why \begin{empty} works without ever defining \empty, and is it the same as \begin{@empty}?
 
kahen
kahen
But \empty is defined. Try \unless\ifdefined\empty \csname @@end\endcsname\fi and you'll see
\ifdefined (and its cousin \ifcsname ... \endcsname) are eTeX primitives
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
1:39 AM
@kahen Yes, I see. Both \empty and \@empty seem to be defined to {}.
 
kahen
kahen
@AlanMunn I remember learning about the little detail that \csname foo\endcsname sets \foo to \relax from this page: tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=isdef
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
@kahen Thanks. The UK FAQ is full of useful gems like this. BTW I haven't seen you in chat much, but I see you're not new. Welcome anyway. :)
 
Alan Munn
Alan Munn
2:11 AM
@PauloCereda I've had a go through of the interview. You might want to wait until someone else also looks at it, in case I've missed anything.
 
Speravir
Speravir
2:24 AM
@percuße Wasn’t it you, who some time ago linked to this cool xkcd inspired based game on xkcd.kajakklubben.org? I first thought, this is was new version of this: heaven.depechemode.com Well, it is not, but inspired one could say …
 
percuße
percuße
@Speravir Well I'm just the messenger. :P
 
Speravir
Speravir
@percuße Oh, this can be dangerous … ;-)
 
percuße
percuße
@Speravir It's a shame for DM in my opinion. They might at least be more creative
I've been listening to them because of some ex-girlfriends though, so I don't really mind :)
 
Speravir
Speravir
@percuße I’m quite sure, it’s not by themselves. :-)
 
percuße
percuße
@Speravir What? DM doesn't read xkcd? What's next using Word? life of a nerd in a nutshell
 
Speravir
Speravir
2:34 AM
@percuße It could also be coincidence (?): The new single calls “Heaven”, so some practicant had to think about this … messages in the nightly heaven (hover with the mouse over the stars and nebulae).
@percuße LOL
 
kahen
kahen
I'm not big on silly games with musicians. Except for kanyezone.com - dat s#!t kray! ;)
 
Speravir
Speravir
@kahen :-)
 
percuße
percuße
@kahen :)
 
percuße
percuße
3:00 AM
The Galaxy Note 8.0 will have an 8-inch screen, putting it very close in size to the Apple's tablet, which launched in November with a 7.9-inch screen. It's not the first time Samsung has made a tablet that's in the Mini's size range: it's very first iPad competitor had a 7-inch screen, and it still makes a tablet of that size, but without a pen.
8 inch is like 2 meters, yes?
 
kahen
kahen
 
percuße
percuße
@kahen :) It's supposed to be a phone.
I'll just put it on the wall and hold it with my head.
 
kahen
kahen
Well... it's Android, so it's not like it cost Samsung anything substantial to have phone functionality built in. And you don't have to use it as a phone. It's obviously intended to be used as a tablet most of the time. A tablet that happens to be able to make phone calls in a pinch.
 
percuße
percuße
@kahen If I can't put it in the back pocket and if I cry when it falls, I'm not buying it heheh. I use a back-then awesome, now-mediocre Samsung i8510. One time, it fell and I was trying soften the fall with my feet but somehow I managed to create a volley out of my attempt :) Still works like a rock.
3
 
Speravir
Speravir
3:25 AM
@percuße I thought, these were all small (or not so small ;-) ) computers you can accidently can phone with.
 
 
4 hours later…
topskip
topskip
7:24 AM
Goooooood morning chatties!
 
 
1 hour later…
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
8:29 AM
@topskip mornin'
@tohecz would be right, wouldn't he? That is too big an edit. I'
 
tohecz
tohecz
@percuße You gotta love dumb-phones, they "survive" a lot, like this one: aroundandeverywhere.wordpress.com/2011/07/12/…
@CharlesStewart If the post were older than let's say 1 month, I'd accept it. This is a recent post, and if anyone has an addendum, he should make a comment and let the post author word it himself.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz I've had five phones in the last 4 years: one stolen, one had the keypad stop working, one went swimming in the sea with it, one dropped down the toilet. And one is my trusty Eur 25 Samsung special, now two years old.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart mine would survive the accidents #3 and #4 ;)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
The sea is a tough challenge.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart yeah, I would certainly wash it in non-salty water afterwards :D
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
8:35 AM
@tohecz I'm going to tweak the edit, since the edit is basically explaining a bounty award
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart That's what you can (should) (might) do of course
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
I was swimming for over 10 minutes before I wondered why there was a pebble in my trunks
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart the certificate of this one is IP30, if I remember correctly, which is "survive 30 minutes in the depth of 1 meter"
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz Nice. How much?
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart it was very cheap if you ask for the price, around EUR 100
I was looking for the one that has the IPx7 certificate (that's the army one). But that one costs $400 and looks like a buldozer :-/ See: sonimtech.com/products
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
8:40 AM
Just found a price of $144. I can destroy a lot of $25 phones for that price.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart yes, but you cannot use them when you go mountain-climbing for couple days, it's -1C and mixed rain with snow
the point is that I got a phone that survives everything I would do (I'm not so extremist). And its battery lasts 2 weeks, after 3 years, which is not bad, too.
well, it's 09:45 and I should have been on my way to work already. See you later.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz See you
 
 
2 hours later…
tohecz
tohecz
10:26 AM
I'm not really happy about the line \listfiles being added to the example MWE in the MWE meta post. Opinions?
67
A: I've just been asked to write a minimal example, what is that?

Kevin VermeerMost questions about code are made more answerable by the addition of a minimal working example (MWE) or short, self-contained, correct example (SSCCE). Your question may have an obvious answer, or it may not. You the questioner probably do not know the difference between the two! So think a...

 
percuße
percuße
11:04 AM
@tohecz Yes, back then smart phones were actually proper dude phones smart enough to survive. I also have an 8MP camera with ISO settings but no Angry Birds. :P
 
egreg
egreg
@tohecz Neither am I; while sometimes issues are caused by outdated packages, this is usually not the case. Adding \listfiles to all MWE suggests it is a required command in all documents.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
11:19 AM
@tohecz and if it is to be used it ought to be in the preamble we always tell people to start with \documentclass and end with \end{document}
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
11:30 AM
@AlanMunn Thanks, Alan. :) I'll poke @JosephWright. :)
 
tohecz
tohecz
11:45 AM
@DavidCarlisle @egreg so should someone (me maybe?) revert it?
 
egreg
egreg
11:59 AM
@tohecz Done
 
tohecz
tohecz
12:17 PM
@egreg I saw, thx ;)
Another "Opinions on this" (OP wants to make a question CW but IMHO it's a non-sense.)
2
Q: When should we use \DeclareMathSizes, \xxxstyle and font size changing macros (\tiny, \small, etc)?

Stupid BoyCould you give me a complete overview when we should use \DeclareMathSizes, \xxxstyle (such as \scriptstyle, etc), and font size changing macros (\tiny, \small, etc)? I want this answer to be CW so all of you can collaborate the answer as complete as possible. You can elaborate any relevant aspe...

math-mode fontsize best-practices
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@tohecz I can't see why he wants it cw (doesn't he just have to edit it 20 times and it will happen anyway) it's not an answerable question in any case, "why should we use a bunch of unrelated commands for low level font setup and/or document level markup)"
 
tohecz
tohecz
12:42 PM
@DavidCarlisle I agree it is impossible to answer it so that he'll be content. The reason why I asked about his SE experience is that he obviously knows what he speaks about, but still the lack of experience is significant.
 
tohecz
tohecz
1:02 PM
@David \catcode`\+ 11 <bt><bt>\catcode<bt>\+ 11<bt><bt>
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/answer tell me a joke.
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: Starbuck worried Captain Ahab's pursuit of Möbius Dick was a one-sided fight. :: (according to what passes for mathematical humor (my favorite sub-genre), drawn from several sources but primarily from P. Renteln and A. Dundes in their paper "Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor" in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 52, pp. 24-34, 2005)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
To be clear, you want some software that takes two parameters (the input numerator and denominator), and turns out an HTML representation of the long division that will look right when it occurs on a page with Mathjax enabled? — Charles Stewart yesterday
(sod it, wrong link)
3
Q: Is there a long division macro?

KasperI want to do regular long division in latex. See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_division Is there a latex macro for this ? Edit: I actually want to use it in mathjax, is this possible ?

math-mode macros
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@CharlesStewart where's that, I have a page that does that.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
I don't think that qn is a duplicate of what it has been closed as an exact duplicate of
If the qner really wants to produce HTML, a Latex package isn't likely to be very helpful
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart it is either a dupe or OT :-/
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
1:06 PM
Mathjax is borderline, isn't it?
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
@CharlesStewart In which case it is off-topic.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@DavidCarlisle: we will add you as a blog writer. :)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
Mathjax has been a friend to Tex-using mathematical blog writers, at least
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart MathJaX is borderline in the sense that "what can be solved the 'LaTeXy' way is on-topic, the rest is off-topic"
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
@CharlesStewart No. MathJaX is off-topic. "I want to do XYZ in MathJaX. Since MathJaX is based on LaTeX syntax so I thought I'd start by figuring out XYZ in LaTeX, how do you do that?" is on-topic. Everything else is off-topic.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
1:07 PM
@CharlesStewart I added a link to a mathjax compatible answer
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@DavidCarlisle Thanks
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
@CharlesStewart So has Markdown. So has a dictionary. Still off-topic.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
The scope of the site is kind of unclear.
Is Auctex on topic?
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@PauloCereda I could write a blog article about tikz
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@DavidCarlisle yes, YES, YES! :)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
1:09 PM
Is preparing TEI files for import into Context on topic?
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
18
Q: How do we feel about MathJaX/jsMath/other spin-offs?

Andrew StaceyAlthough the answer to this question turned out to be about text versus maths mode, it could so easily have been about something specific to MathJaX. It is probably inevitable that we'll get questions about TeX spin-offs, should we: Tolerate them - there won't be that many Tolerate them, but l...

discussion scope
@CharlesStewart Rule of thumb: "Is this a problem that a TeX user would encounter when they are writing a TeX document and is related to that writing?" AucTeX, probably yes. MathJaX, probably no.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
So you'd say the TEI qn is off topic?
Since the document was probably not prepared using Tex
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart what is TEI?
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz It's an XML-based document representation used by some publishers
@tohecz A few Context folk are interested in typsetting from TEI documents
I generally have the impression that I am a little more liberal in what I think is on topic for the site than the middle ground on meta, which in turn is quite a bit more liberal than what actually happens with closing
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@egreg: ^^
@percuße: ^^ :)
 
egreg
egreg
1:16 PM
@PauloCereda Frightening title.
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
@CharlesStewart The other factor is "How many of this type of question are we going to get?" Preparing TEI, not many. Figuring out MathJaX, a lot.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@egreg Sometimes I think I'm too much eclectic. :)
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart The point is, my opinion is that a question is on-topic on that site where it gets attention of the right people. Most problems of conversion of TEI to ConTeXt would very likely deal with XSTL and similar technologies, therefore not with the LaTeX ones. It's similar with MathJaX.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz I think qns are often on-topic on many sites, which creates a problem with the risk of people asking the same qn on many sites. But we'd do better to close such questions as not constructive than off topic.
There's a problem (more on SO than here) with people seeing a qn and thinking "that should be closed" and then casting around for a close reason, even if none quite fit.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/eightball Are MathJaX questions offtopic to us?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: yes, definitely.
o.O
 
tohecz
tohecz
1:20 PM
@PauloCereda you bribed him
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/eightball Should David write a blogpost about TikZ? :)
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: concentrate and ask again.
@tohecz :)
!!/eightball Did I bribe you?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: my sources say no.
@tohecz: see ^^
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@PauloCereda I'm convinced. Psmith is incorruptible.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@CharlesStewart aww <3 Beware, Psmith is wacky most of the time. :)
!!/eightball Are you wacky?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: don't you think emacs is great?
@DavidCarlisle: ^^
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@PauloCereda Have you read any of the Wodehouse Psmith stories? Wacky and incorruptible both fit.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@CharlesStewart Actually no. :( I'd love to take a look. :)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
1:24 PM
@PauloCereda Not the first Wodehouse you should read, but there is a Psmith Omnibus with the 3 stories collected.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart no. NC is a think that doesn't (shouldn't) depend on the site. OT does.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz It is not constructive (i.e., time wasting) to ask a question simultaneously on several sites. It is legitimate to close qns for that reason. IMO, but I could ask on meta.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart oh yeah, cross posts. I would still say off-topic.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
The tag wiki for mathjax says only discussion of the latex part of the syntax is on topic - odd, because it contains Plain Texisms as well. I'll fix this.
 
tohecz
tohecz
The problem is that the LaTeX aspect of the recent question is: Use one of the X packages designed to that. Which essentially changes the question to: How do I use a LaTeX package in MathJaX? And this is off-topic.
@CharlesStewart this is unnecessary pedantism IMHO. And: it contains TeX-coreisms not plain-TeXisms, and TeX-core is conmprised in LaTeX.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
1:31 PM
@tohecz Isn't "Sorry, Mathjax doesn't really support Latex" the right answer, then?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/eightball Do you like TeX?
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz Me? Unnecessarily pedantic? Well, sometimes, I suppose...
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: my sources say no.
!!/answer weather in São Paulo, Brazil.
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: temperature | 26 °C :: conditions | clear :: relative humidity | 61% (dew point: 18 °C) :: wind speed | 1 m/s :: (1 hour 32 minutes ago)
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart Isn't "Sorry, Mathjax doesn't really support Latex" essentially the same as "MathJaX is off-topic on LaTeX forum?" (the TeX/ConTeXt etc. is irrelevant now I think)
!!/answer weather in Prague
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@tohecz **Psmith, the TeX bot:** temperature | 4 °C (wind chill: 0 °C) :: conditions | cloudy :: relative humidity | 75% (dew point: 0 °C) :: wind speed | 6.2 m/s :: (1 hour 33 minutes ago)
@tohecz **Psmith, the TeX bot:** temperature | 2 °C (wind chill: -2 °C) :: conditions | overcast :: relative humidity | 87% (dew point: 0 °C) :: wind speed | 4.6 m/s :: (33 minutes ago)
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
1:33 PM
@tohecz Not at all. The question of whether mathjax is a Latex platform is on topic.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart But the OP doesn't ask this.
Such "answer" should appear in the comments (oh it's already there, what a surprise) and not as an answer.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz If the qner is asking to use a Latex package in Mathjax, then he/she is supposing something along those lines
 
tohecz
tohecz
@CharlesStewart but he's not.
Sorry, I start to have a feeling that this discussion is pointless, and moreover I'm at work.
 
Charles Stewart
Charles Stewart
@tohecz Heigh ho. You did start this line of argument...
 
Andrew Stacey
Andrew Stacey
@PauloCereda Don't remember the right reading order, but nonetheless you can legally get the books at: gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=psmith
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
1:51 PM
@AndrewStacey Wow, thanks!
 
tohecz
tohecz
2:06 PM
@egreg Would you consider making _ work as subsscript in mathmode as a good thing to do in that question?
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@LoveRight, I apologize for deleting and undeleting my answer so much. The endnotes package is really poorly put together. Still working on a fix, just so you know.
 
egreg
egreg
@tohecz I consider using _ for marking italics a bad thing to begin with.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@egreg I can't disagree :p
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
I'm pretty sure @egreg has sold his soul to Knuth himself.
 
egreg
egreg
@vermiculus :)
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
2:12 PM
But seriously, someone needs to fix the documentation for endnotes. It's incredibly misleading.
@egreg, do you have any idea as to how to go about that other than emailing the devs?
 
egreg
egreg
@vermiculus If you do, please add a feature request to have different formatting of the marker in the text and in the endnotes section
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@egreg, agreed. I think I'll send him an email shortly. Anything else you'd like to add?
(in an ideal world, etc.)
 
topskip
topskip
@tohecz I was there two weeks ago... It was cold, I can tell you :))
 
egreg
egreg
@vermiculus Not at the moment.
@PauloCereda The radio just broadcasted "Caro nome", by Joe Green. :)
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@egreg LOL
 
tohecz
tohecz
2:56 PM
@topskip there's some nice portion of snow just now. I return there in one week exactly :) What did you do in my hometown? :)
 
topskip
topskip
@tohecz I went to a great xml conference
 
lockstep
lockstep
Yay! I managed to review a "First post" while Peter Jansson was online! ;-)
7
 
tohecz
tohecz
@lockstep Well, with some people the review statistics seem to only show some function of (F5-per-minute) and (hours-a-day-online), which is of course increasing in both variables. The problem is that he often doesn't really treat the posts well. Very often a comment would be appropriate, tags are missing, duplicates are not searched for etc. It really seems to me as stat-hunting :-/
2
 
lockstep
lockstep
3:13 PM
@tohecz Most of his edits seem correct to me (with the exception of the "BibLaTeX" spelling) -- I only wish he would leave some crumbs (posts) for the rest of us.
 
tohecz
tohecz
@lockstep but he only edits, nothing more. Especially with "First Posts" reviews, it makes the post disappear from the review queue, yet there're actions left to be taken...
2
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/eightball Do you like me? :)
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: concentrate and ask again.
oh.
!!/eightball do you like me?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: it is certain.
aww <3
!!/eightball Do you like Chopin?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: outlook good.
hm interesting.
!!/eightball How about Beethoven?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: it is certain.
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
3:30 PM
@PauloCereda ... wat (no really, what?)
!!/eightball are you a robot, Mr. EightBall?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: it is decidedly so.
@vermiculus It's our beloved bot. :)
!!/help
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
Well, I guess that settles it then.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: Good afternoon! I'm Psmith, the friendly TeX bot - the p in my name is silent, as in pshrimp. I'm here as a companion to our fellow users in the typographic land. As you probably noticed, I always reply under Paulo's account, but do not despair, I say, my replies are always preceded by my own name. Enjoy your stay at TeX.sx! If you need any help, just ask our chat residents. Cheerio!
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@PauloCereda lost it at pshrimp
 
egreg
egreg
!!/texdef -t latex -p endnotes \@makeenmark
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
3:33 PM
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\@makeenmark:
macro:->\hbox {\@textsuperscript {\normalfont \@theenmark }}
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@egreg YOUR DEMON MAGIC REVEALS ITSELF
I knew you had special powers.
I spent a good fifteen minutes looking that crap up.
So !!\/ will execute a sh command?
 
egreg
egreg
@vermiculus I looked at the package code.
@vermiculus No, only some are enabled; texdef is allowed
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@vermiculus no but you can do
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@egreg well yeah. Still, it's nice to know it's here. I need to make myself more privy to all of the other programs in the TeX distribution -- I had no idea texdef existed.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
!!/cricket
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
3:37 PM
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Let's take a look at the last cricket results:

- India 50/2 &  572/10 * v Australia 380/10 &  241/10
- Karachi Blues 401/7 * v Sialkot 229/10
- Karnataka 197/3 * v Uttar Pradesh 194/10
- Assam 211/6 * v Madhya Pradesh 210/10
- Sri Lanka Women 158/9 * v West Indies Women 191/9
- Mashonaland Eagles 222/10  v Mountaineers 57/1 *
- Mid West Rhinos 297/8 * v Southern Rocks
- West Indies v Zimbabwe 122/4 *
- New Zealand XI v England XI
- Victoria v Queensland
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@DavidCarlisle oh dear.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@vermiculus you don't like cricket? try fencing that works too
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/fencing
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Let's take a look at the last fencing results:

- Oh dear, nothing happened so far.

Our fencing expert Alan might explain these results later on.
!!/list
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm able to recognize the following commands: help, list, cricket, fencing, say, ctan, texdef, eightball, answer, choose, define. You probably noticed that all commands must start with !!/ followed by the command name, didn't you? Splendid!
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/help ctan
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
3:44 PM
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: According to my book, ctan displays CTAN news directly from the official announcement list.
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/help answer
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: According to my book, answer makes me ask Wolfram Alpha about your question.
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/help choose
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: According to my book, choose randomly chooses an option given. /choose option0, option1, ...
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/help define
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
3:45 PM
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: According to my book, define displays the meaning of a certain acronym.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
!!/answer tell me a joke
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@DavidCarlisle Psmith, the TeX bot: Q: What's sour, yellow, and equivalent to the axiom of choice? A: Zorn's lemon. :: (according to what passes for mathematical humor (my favorite sub-genre), drawn from several sources but primarily from P. Renteln and A. Dundes in their paper "Sampling of Mathematical Folk Humor" in Notices of the American Mathematical Society, vol. 52, pp. 24-34, 2005)
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@DavidCarlisle That joke was bad. That joke was really, really bad.
!!/answer tell me another joke
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@vermiculus Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm sorry, no answers.
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
I'm just not loved is all.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
3:54 PM
!!/eightball do you love @vermiculus?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@DavidCarlisle Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: it is certain.
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
!!/say Nothing I say has meaning. I'm a slave to the user's whim, and I cannot love.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
Psmith, the TeX bot: An extra vote a day keeps the serial voting algorithm away! see you have an unfair advantage, getting rep for accepting answers, egreg and I never get that, At Tex sx the party never ends so you can never be too late to join it.
My bot is stupid. :)
 
vermiculus
vermiculus
@PauloCereda, smart bots are no fun, anyway. :)
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@vermiculus Indeed. :) I'll try to improve the sentence generator. :)
 
Speravir
Speravir
3:59 PM
@tohecz I cannot remember: Are you noticed, when one does edit an answer to a question of yours?
 
tohecz
tohecz
@Speravir I dunno, ask @egreg or @David, they have more experience with this :p
 
Speravir
Speravir
@tohecz In other words you aren’t noticed about my edits to your question in German.SE … good to know.
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@Speravir yes if somone edits your qn you get a notification that they have edited (or a request to review it if they don't have enough rep)
 
egreg
egreg
@Speravir Yes, you are.
 
Speravir
Speravir
@DavidCarlisle OK. I think, this happened to me already, as well.
@egreg Aah, now I remember, that I did get no notice of your edits to your answer last time. So, sorry for the noise. ;-)
 
egreg
egreg
4:18 PM
@Speravir I have little experience in notifications about answers to questions of mine. ;-)
 
Speravir
Speravir
@egreg :-) I wonder, why …
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
Stack Exchange TeX Blog: TeXtalk: an interview with Marc van Dongen
Paulo Cereda on February 26, 2013

Dear friends, welcome to the TeXtalk! We have a special guest for today’s interview: our friend Marc van Dongen, author of an awesome book on LaTeX and friends, and a movie star! Get ready for this awesome interview!

Dear friends, welcome to the TeXtalk! Our interviewee today is Marc van Dongen!

Could you tell us a bit about yourself? :)

I am a lecturer in the Computer Science department at University College Cork, I’m the author of LaTeX and Friends, and I’m a movie star.

“LaTeX and Friends” is a very impressive job! When did you have the idea of writing it? …

@JosephWright, @MartinScharrer, @StefanKottwitz: could you guys unfreeze our interview room? chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/1728/textalk-interviews :)
 
tohecz
tohecz
gotta go, see ya later!
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
4:43 PM
@lockstep Thanks!
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/eightball ack, are you alive?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: very doubtful.
 
Stefan Kottwitz
Stefan Kottwitz
5:00 PM
@PauloCereda Ok, it's unfrozen. Luckily nobody caught me there.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@StefanKottwitz Danke schöen. :)
I owe you a Skol. :)
 
Stefan Kottwitz
Stefan Kottwitz
@PauloCereda Let's collect Skols, until I visit Brazil again
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@StefanKottwitz :) You told me your favourite beer here, but I can't remember if it was Skol or Antarctica. :)
 
Stefan Kottwitz
Stefan Kottwitz
The latter I know, and it was great. Skol I don't remember
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@StefanKottwitz Ah, so it was Antarctica. :)
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
5:20 PM
Bring your daughter, bring your daughter to the slaughter! Let her go, let her go, let her go!
I think I should turn down the volume. :D
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
5:44 PM
@egreg sorry didn't see your comment on the >\stepcounter qn.
 
egreg
egreg
@DavidCarlisle Comment removed
 
David Carlisle
David Carlisle
@egreg well it is a longtable question so you can't begrudge me a tick:-)
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
6:09 PM
Hi all! I sent some ideas to LATEX-L, but it's a bit quiet in there, isn't it?
Is there another place where you usually discuss LaTeX3 development?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
OMG @percusse where's \beta? :)
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
In the hash table?
(Sorry.)
 
percusse
percusse
@PauloCereda It's a valuable esset. I'm keeping it for later. 
\end{tryingtobefunny}
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@percusse: We need lolcats.stackexchange.com
6
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
No! This evil must be stopped before it is allowed to begin.
</tryingtobefunny>
 
percusse
percusse
6:23 PM
@SamWhited haha! Nice save.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
(wait for @topskip for a Lua answer)
 
topskip
topskip
@PauloCereda lolluacat?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@topskip LOL
 
topskip
topskip
/me is looking for a Lua question!
 
percusse
percusse
!!/define Lua
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
6:24 PM
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm sorry, I don't know this acronym.
 
percusse
percusse
!!/define LaTeX
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm sorry, I don't know this acronym.
 
percusse
percusse
!!/define LOL
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm sorry, I don't know this acronym.
 
percusse
percusse
!!/define NASA
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
6:26 PM
@percusse: hey stop spamming mah bot!
Uh-oh.
!!/eightball Are you alive?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: reply hazy, try again.
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm sorry, I don't know this acronym.
 
Werner
Werner
@PeterJansson: Out of curiosity, what browser are you using?
 
percusse
percusse
@PauloCereda Yo bot is so ignorant, even it can't a sentanc
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
\prg_replicate:nn {10}{lo}l
3
@percusse haha
 
percusse
percusse
@SamWhited No worries. You'll get the hang of it :)
 
Werner
Werner
@DavidCarlisle ...you don't like cricket... you love it!
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
6:28 PM
!!/answer What is love?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: 1 | noun | a strong positive emotion of regard and affection :: 2 | noun | any object of warm affection or devotion :: 3 | noun | a beloved person; used as terms of endearment :: 4 | noun | a deep feeling of sexual desire and attraction :: 5 | noun | a score of zero in tennis or squash :: 6 | noun | sexual activities (often including sexual intercourse) between two people :: 7 | noun | noun :: 8 | verb | have a great affection or liking for :: (12 meanings)
Damn, this bot ain't funny. I was expecting Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me...
 
Werner
Werner
!!/answer What is cricket?
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
@PauloCereda Out of curiosity, what's powering your bot?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@Werner Psmith, the TeX bot: Gryllidae
 
percusse
percusse
@PauloCereda Heheheh
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@mhelvens It's a JS code wrapping the messages, and with a PHP backend (answers use Wolfram Alpha).
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
6:30 PM
@PauloCereda Ok. Thanks. :-)
 
percusse
percusse
@PauloCereda In short it's an mIRC bot right?
 
Werner
Werner
@PauloCereda I don't think @DavidCarlisle would approve...
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@percusse Beats me. :)
@Werner Let's see...
!!/eightball Dear bot, would David approve the cricket answer?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
Interesting site.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
I HATE THIS BOT.
@mhelvens Very nice indeed. :)
 
Werner
Werner
6:32 PM
@PauloCereda Rick Astley's hips has nothing to do with cricket...
!!/eightball Does Rick Astley know anything about cricket?
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@Werner LOL
@Werner Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: ask again later.
 
percusse
percusse
@PauloCereda Aha for the first time I didn't get rickrolled by the bot.
The chimp is showing improvements in terms of intelligence
 
topskip
topskip
I start playing chess with my son, its really funny.
user image
4
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
6:48 PM
@Werner Firefox. Is there any details I can add to that?
 
Werner
Werner
@PeterJansson Recently you've escalated in the "review" division on TeX.SE.
I've been wondering whether this may be partially due to the browser and it's cache...
...since I haven't seen much in terms of available reviews.
Unless there's some other power you possess that allows you to see reviewable content so quickly.
@PeterJansson: I guess the straight-forward question would be: What's your secret?
3
 
percusse
percusse
It's been a few months since I've did 3 reviews on the same day :)
@PeterJansson By the way, Thank you for the hard work
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
@Werner Hmm, I doubt that it does anything unique. I do in fact feel it has lost in crispness lately. And, no, peronal powers that I am aware of. I usually have the browser open all day on TeX.sx and folow what happens (as long as I am in the office that is). I just see and learn so much even at 52! I sometimes also wonder how the system puts out the reviews. It seems as if I never get them if I am quick to edit/comment on them, at least to the extent that I started wondering.
@percusse Thank you. I find I have some time to try to do chores like editing and reviewing but not do any serious work you all do in terms of good replies.
 
Werner
Werner
@PeterJansson True. Reviewable items don't appear on the list immediately. I'm interested to know the algorithm behind posting content to the "Review list". Editing content before it makes its way to the "Review list" necessarily removes it from the list, perhaps just from the editor, as far as I know.
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
@Werner Suffering from being editor of a journal, I find it a little strange that new posts are out for so long before they are up for review, it would make more sense if they were reviewable immediately as is the case with edits etc. It would be interesting to know what the designer had in mind.
 
lockstep
lockstep
7:02 PM
@Werner It is only removed for the editor/commenter/voter. One of my latest reviews was a question PeterJansson had commented on before (great comment BTW).
@Werner Strange enough, I have seen posts in my review queue after flagging them.
 
Werner
Werner
@lockstep I've seen that as well. Hence my question regarding the "algorithm"...
 
Speravir
Speravir
@PeterJansson Please, after your edits add in the future explaining comments, especially for new users. There is a reason the Text building blocks exist. I once pointed you to them already.
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
@Speravir Sorry, not intentional.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
!!/choose potato, Word
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The great oracle says: potato
 
Speravir
Speravir
@PeterJansson I think especially the removing of thanks and greetings seems first odd to new users. But also the hint for code formatting is useful (and other things of course).
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
7:17 PM
@Speravir I totally agree.
 
texenthusiast
texenthusiast
@PauloCereda you are my "upvote king" inspiration. on what basis you upvote. I would like to learn from you
any meta question on it
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@texenthusiast Wow. <3
 
Feeds
Feeds
Joseph Wright has added an event to this room's schedule.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
@StackExchange OMG JOSEPH IS HERE!
 
Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright
@PauloCereda I have 'flu
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
7:22 PM
@JosephWright Oh no! Sorry to hear.
I wish you a quick recovery.
 
Joseph Wright
Joseph Wright
@PauloCereda Thanks
 
Werner
Werner
Opinion:
16
Q: Understanding the Log file

HTGI'm getting some cryptic (for me) errors and warnings when I compile. On the advice of darn near every internet resource I could find, I dug into the .log file. The trouble is, I don't know how to interpret what I see. I don't want to take up people's time so, where can I find a Reading LaTex ...

compiling output
6
Q: Making sense of compile error logs

MagpieIs there a documentation somewhere which gives a gentle guidance on interpreting error logs? Sometimes it is really hard to figure out how to correct something judging by the log and it would be useful to know some tricks for this, I think. EDIT: A user has suggested a good wikibook and this...

errors compiling
 
Speravir
Speravir
@Werner I use Firefox as well, and here the review page is not that fast (I once intentionally tried an update the minute). Actually there must be an issue with this: I more than once stumbled over questions, where I saw closing votes, but these were not shown in the review page. (break for half an hour or so)
 
Werner
Werner
The latter is a duplicate of the former...
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
@lockstep A belated thanks! not everyone is as happy about it, however!
 
lockstep
lockstep
7:29 PM
@PeterJansson About your comment/answer?
 
Peter Jansson
Peter Jansson
@lockstep Yes, usefulness of the tool for a thesis. It was just funny to see both ends of the spectrum.
 
lockstep
lockstep
@Speravir I use Chrome, and I noticed the same thing with regard to closing votes not showing up in the review page.
 
Werner
Werner
7:57 PM
@lockstep Here's a simple example. On Meta, there's a post with 2 closing votes:
1
Q: About "trivial" answers

vermiculusAn obvious spinoff of the wonderful 'About "trivial" questions,' but different in intent. I'm still relatively new here, but I've been around long enough to see that a whole ton of potential answers (mostly in the form of 'have you tried this' or 'have you seen this package') are said ...

discussion answers
Nothing is available under the review for Closing (on my account):
 
Peter Grill
Peter Grill
@lockstep: Do you think I should remove the "Useful References" link not that you added the venn-diagram tag?
 
mhelvens
mhelvens
@JosephWright Hi there! Have read my post to LATEX-L by any chance?
 
Werner
Werner
...it just showed up. :-|
 
lockstep
lockstep
8:32 PM
@PeterGrill I'd rather preserve it - this way, the two questions will show up as "linked".
 
Speravir
Speravir
8:45 PM
@Werner Yes, and now it is closed.
 
Speravir
Speravir
9:29 PM
@PauloCereda Macaws, giffed. The whole blog is awesome: Head Like an Orange.
 
Speravir
Speravir
10:05 PM
Ha, ha, ha: LOL.
 
Paulo Cereda
Paulo Cereda
10:20 PM
@Speravir awwww.
 
Speravir
Speravir
@PauloCereda Recovered some more: headlikeanorange.tumblr.com/tagged/monty%20python
 
 
1 hour later…
WG-
WG-
11:37 PM
Can anyone confirm that mirror.ctan.org is down?
I try to download the texlive installer, mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl-unx.tar.gz
but it won't download.
 
kahen
kahen
 
WG-
WG-
Okay ;-) I tried that also but sometimes isup.me also gives false notices :P
 
Speravir
Speravir
11:53 PM
@WG- It is not only for you and isup.me, but also for me. Depending on, where you live, you should use one of the actual sites. mirror.ctan.org just redirects you, if it works.
 

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