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12:02 AM
@DavidCarlisle Not to provoke a discussion at this time of the night while I'm solving matrix Riccati equations but what is the closest thing to a full rewriting of TeX as you can recall ? I mean one that almost got halfway and decayed later?
if any of course
 
@percusse you mean recoding the tex engine?
 
@DavidCarlisle yep
 
@percusse NTS probably
 
@percusse There was ExTeX.
 
@DavidCarlisle @egreg Aha I found it on the Wiki page indeed thanks. Pity that it was on Java now @PauloCereda has to finish it.
 
12:07 AM
@percusse possibly the most widely distributed and used program that implements the math layout rules from appendix G is Word
 
@percusse O.o
 
@DavidCarlisle I don't know if I should be happy or sad :) Finally I know what e-TeX did.
This project, called "e-TeX", extends TeX in many areas without requiring a complete re-implementation. E-TeX is implemented as a changefile to "tex.web".
 
@percusse The last commit to the SVN repository for exTeX was on June 2011.
 
@egreg oh so still there is an epsilon activity.
 
12:21 AM
@percusse why sad? It extended TeX by the extension mechanism designed for the purpose (change files)
@percusse It was a reaction in many ways to the re implement from scratch aims of NTS (which proved a lot less successful in the end)
 
@DavidCarlisle hi there :) I think this question could use your TeXpertise
2
Q: Align columns in multiple subfigure tables in figure environment

lodhbHere's my code: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{booktabs,caption,subcaption} \begin{document} \begin{table}[h!] \caption{Main figure} \begin{subfigure}{\linewidth} \caption{Table 1} %Table 1 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|} \toprule Header 1 & Header 2 & Header 3 \\ \midrule Blablabla &...

 
@cmhughes may look (but I've been out all day, just popped in to see if anything happening, about to go to bed:-)
 
@DavidCarlisle no problem :) something for you to dream about, or else come back tomorrow :) my simplistic approach is not robust enough...
 
@DavidCarlisle my mistake. Half of the comment is to the word part, then I was excited to understand something heheh
 
@percusse: Try !!/question question
!!/list
Oh wait.
!!/list
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm able to recognize the following commands: help, list, cricket, ctan, texdef, eightball, question, choose. You probably noticed that all commands must start with !!/ followed by the command name, didn't you? Splendid!
@percusse: ok, you can try it. :)
 
12:31 AM
!!/list
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm able to recognize the following commands: help, list, cricket, ctan, texdef, eightball, question, choose. You probably noticed that all commands must start with !!/ followed by the command name, didn't you? Splendid!
 
!!/question What's your name ?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: Is this true or false: 'This sentence is false.'
 
hahahaha
 
lolwut
!!/question How are you?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: Not too bad!
 
12:33 AM
hey a hangover bot
hahaha
 
!!/question do you like us?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: ?
 
!!/question How old are you?
 
OMG rethorical bot.
 
hehehehe
great stuff
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm 15 years old.
LOL
 
12:34 AM
!!/question Why?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: Why?
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: ?
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: Why?
 
!!/question Yes why?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: ...
 
!!/question Are you angry?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I do not feel angry right now.
 
12:35 AM
!!/question Are you hungry?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: ?
 
!!/question What's your name?
Go on then you can remember it.
 
Did it crash?
 
I guess. It doesn't like consecutive stuff and if I edit the message it goes nuts.
 
Let me refresh stuff.
!!/help
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: 'ello! 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 dispair, 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!
OK, bot is up. :) @percusse: now go. :)
1
A: TUG Membership: Names for 2013

AdityaSince there aren't 8 nominations in the tray, I'd like to nominate myself for a sponsored TUG membership. I was a TUG member a few years ago, but in recent years I stopped being a TUG member in favor of being a member of the ConTeXt group. I enjoy reading TUGBoat and have contributed semi-regu...

To the upvote button! :)
!!/question What's your name?
Oh no. :P
 
12:44 AM
!!/question What's your name?
 
There's a potential bug in the code. I might take a look.
 
@PauloCereda Don't worry we are just messing around. texdef is working so it's a superb shot anyway.
 
@percusse <3
@percusse: I think I fixed it. Try again, please. :)
 
!!/question What's your name?
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I see.
 
12:47 AM
hahahaha
you sneaky oracle
 
!!/question Have you ever used TeX?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: lol
o.O
 
!!/question What is your name?
 
WTF
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: ?
 
maybe it needs is seperation
hahahaha
 
The corpora are actually too small. :) (forgot corpora is plural)
 
12:48 AM
this is wicked. Not a single fuck was given that day.... :)
 
@percusse hahaha
 
!!/emotion I already like you
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm deeply sorry, old chap, but the command emotion does not exist.
 
wow english fail.
 
!!/question Do you like emacs?
 
12:49 AM
Yes I thought about that too.
 
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: Er...
LOL
 
!!/question What is emacs?
 
@percusse **Psmith, the TeX bot:** lol
@percusse **Psmith, the TeX bot:** ...
 
@DavidCarlisle I sudo apt-get install emacs23 auctex and am preparing to mess with my already comfortable life just to see why the very short wiki answer;)
 
@PauloCereda Man I can talk to this fella all day. It's always giving me the answers I'm thinking that moment.
 
12:51 AM
@percusse: emacs scares the bot. :)
 
!!/question What?
let's go simple
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: I don't know.
@percusse <3 I'll try a bigger database tomorrow. :) Let's see what happens. Or we could add our own collections of jewels. :P
 
!!/question How?
 
@PauloCereda let me try the emacs question
 
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: How?
 
12:51 AM
!!/emacs
 
@hpesoj626 Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm deeply sorry, old chap, but the command emacs does not exist.
 
Well it's working great already
it's parsing the questions etc.
 
@cmhughes put two versions in an answer:-)
 
!!/question is emacs is a great TeX editor?
 
@percusse Yes. :) I need to make the backend work better. :)
@hpesoj626 Psmith, the TeX bot: lol
 
12:52 AM
puhahahaha
 
hahahha
 
This bot is evil. :)
 
@percusse well I was quite pleased to know word based its formatting on TeX It doesn't help me but it does help lots of people)
 
@DavidCarlisle Certainly it's good but still if you look at the output quality and blending in with text it's very primitive. Also I don't know where MathType comes in with the Eq Editor.
 
@DavidCarlisle I was thinking about trying something crazy- using pgfplotstable to measure the width of each element, check if it's the biggest so far, and if so dump it to the .aux file; read it back on the next run.... I've never written nor read from the .aux file though....
 
12:57 AM
@percusse mathtype and equation editor are completely different to the ooml formatting in word 2007
 
Friends, I'm off to Bedfordshire. :)
Good night! :)
 
@PauloCereda sleep tight :) I'm glad you put your name forward for TUG
 
@cmhughes Thanks, you too. :) I'm waiting to see your name as well. :)
 
@DavidCarlisle Ah OK it's been some time :)
@PauloCereda Night buddy!
 
@PauloCereda oh no, the bot goes to bed with you? Who will we be able to talk to?
 
12:58 AM
!!/question Good night?
 
@percusse Night, buddy! :)
@percusse Psmith, the TeX bot: Yep.
 
hahaha good to know
 
@DavidCarlisle Too risky, I have no idea what this bot can do unsupervised. :)
Here I go! :) (See my icon falling off, it's like I'm doing bungee jump here)
 
@cmhughes do too much of that and you could implement longtable
 
@cmhughes You can break the tables already. There is an example on the manual.
 
1:02 AM
@percusse oh, ok... I've got it open here- which page?...
 
let me find it
 
@cmhughes Page 40.
 
@percusse ok, the big one and the little one?
 
@DavidCarlisle Oh Thanks.
@cmhughes Yep
 
1:04 AM
@percusse would you use pgfplotstable for this one? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/85273/…
 
@cmhughes Yes but I guess internally it will be mapped to a newcolumn type. However, you can squeeze in a dimension register and set it at each cell. But it needs to check the data beforehand . So two steps are needed.
 
@percusse indeed, that's why I wanted to write to the aux file
 
@cmhughes Oh, I mean you can execute a code using \pgfplotstableforeachcolumnelement so you can pass over the data once at each column get the max size then use the typesetting command. So no need to write two runs.
 
@percusse oh ok, that's much easier :) I'm trying to put something together, but I think it's the kind of thing that you could bash out much quicker- fancy writing an answer? :)
 
@cmhughes Not now actually, MATLAB is screaming from behind
 
1:16 AM
@percusse ok, I'll see what I can do....
 
But I can read from here. It sucks in all the processor so TeX is not compiling while it's screaming.
 
 
7 hours later…
8:17 AM
@DavidCarlisle Thanks. Am I to infer from your comment that you are not a fan of tabularx? :-)
 
8:37 AM
@PauloCereda Wow, your bot even sounds British.
 
8:50 AM
@FaheemMitha :)
 
9:01 AM
Is the LaTeX 3 work in progress included in TeX Live 2012?
 
9:25 AM
@FaheemMitha Or more exactly it sounds like an american trying to sound british
@percusse as you predicted....
 
@DavidCarlisle I think emacs is a valid answer for most questions here. :)
 
@FaheemMitha It's Ok at what it does, but people over-use it.
 
9:55 AM
Anyone with non-CVS TikZ care to test this one:
6
Q: Can't get rid of strange underfull \hbox with TikZ fit library

YuriThis peace of code is compiled with 'Underfull \hbox (badness 1484) in paragraph at lines 23--23' message. Line 23 is \node[draw, inner sep = 10pt, fit=(MUL1) (MUL2)] {};. How can I get rid of underfull box? \documentclass[a4paper]{report} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{positioning,fit} \pg...

Need to test: with the code as-is, that you get an underful hbox. Then add the code \tikzset{every fit/.append style={text badly centered}} in the preamble and see if it goes away.
 
@AndrewStacey stock TL2012
Underfull \hbox (badness 1484) in paragraph at lines 23--23
[][][][]
 
@DavidCarlisle And now with the added code?
 
you don't want to know what I got first:-) but on second attempt it (the underfull box) went.
@AndrewStacey These instructions were not precise enough:-)
! Undefined control sequence.
<recently read> \tikzset
 
@DavidCarlisle Presumably you got the message You appear to be compiling a document with TikZ. You are about to be logged out as you are not the real David Carlisle.
3
@DavidCarlisle Ah, I should have said "After \usepackage{tikz}" you mean?
 
@AndrewStacey yes:-)
 
10:00 AM
@DavidCarlisle Great. So it can be closed as a duplicate. Thanks.
@DavidCarlisle I've carefully not named you as the accomplice.
 
@AndrewStacey I have tested it and it does indeed produce that error message. I tried a bunch of things to get it to not do that, but could not..
Ohm wait did not see your follow up message... I test now...
 
@PeterGrill Did you see the question that Jake linked to? That contained a solution but before I cast the final vote-to-close I thought it best to check that the solution there actually worked. David's confirmed that it does - you could double check just so that David doesn't have to confess that he's compiled a TikZ document.
 
@AndrewStacey Wow!! Your solution works!! Where is text badly centered documented???
@AndrewStacey Does David even know how to compile a tilz document? Would that mean he read some documentation? :-) No, I had not seen the one Jake linked to, I think your solution should be posted.
 
@PeterGrill Jake's solution, you mean. It's in the node section (strangely, it didn't get caught by my cheat sheet script).
@PeterGrill It's now (rightly) closed-as-duplicate.
 
@AndrewStacey Oh, compiling the code in the so called duplicate question no longer has an issue, with the current TL2012.
So its' really not a duplicate then.
 
10:12 AM
@PeterGrill You mean that you don't get an error with the original question?
 
Yes, with the code in the question Badbox from PGF layer using fit, no errors are produced with updated TL2012.
Wait... I don't get errors with TL2011 either??? huh??? Let me double check..
 
@PeterGrill I'm a tikz-pgf veteran: 166 votes from 24 answers.
 
Never mind. I do get errors with TL2012 as well as TL2011. Not sure what is going on. Had "System Preference" quit on me, so perhaps I need a reboot... :-)
@DavidCarlisle Wow, have you gotten the lead tikz badge yet?
Its about 0.01% on the way to a bronze badge. :-)
You were very clever to make the emacs answer a community wiki -- that has saved you 4 points so far (and I haven't even downvoted it yet). :-)
 
@PeterGrill I think it's automatically cw because the question was (or something) It's my first ever answer to get two downvotes (so far:-) I blame the vi users, you know who you are....
 
@DavidCarlisle I wouldn't mind a bit more detail on the emacs answer. I'm not using auctex (just the basic tex mode) and while it does recognise dtx to a certain extent, none of the useful stuff seems to see past the % signs.
 
10:25 AM
@DavidCarlisle Oh, so weren't actually as clever as I thought.
 
@PeterGrill No. That's votes not rep. I have a tikz-pgf badge. So there.
@PeterGrill well that's probably true
 
@DavidCarlisle Indeed you do. I feel so much better now that I know I won't be able to catch up anyway. Plus it got tiring trying to find answer to down vote without being noticed.
 
@AndrewStacey Having gone to some effort to post an apparently 5 character answer, I plan to resist calls to expand on it. Anyway since I have used emacs virtually every day since 1987 and have used essentially no other editor in the full-screen editing era, I'm not exactly in a position to give an unbiased objective review.
@PeterGrill you were noticed. Retribution will come later.
 
@DavidCarlisle :-) Ok, good nite everyone...
 
10:58 AM
@DavidCarlisle I don't want unbiased! I want to get emacs to work with dtx files.
 
@AndrewStacey Oh it just needs a bit of lisp. You know in principle it could do it. You're a pure mathematician that should be enough.
 
@DavidCarlisle Yes, but as a pure mathematician I'm extremely lazy so if someone else has done it already I'd rather steal^H^H^H^H^H build on their work. Anyway, it's probably a good thing: means I don't spend too much time editing dtx and spend more time writing articles.
 
@DavidCarlisle Lambda Calculus? :)
 
11:19 AM
it depends what you mean by "work" when I load up a dtx file it uses docTeX mode:
Major mode in AUCTeX for editing .dtx files derived from `LaTeX-mode'.
 
@DavidCarlisle Digging needed on my part, obviously.
 
11:35 AM
@DavidCarlisle Wow!
@DavidCarlisle: Isabelle!
:)
 
@PauloCereda yes was fun working with isabelle in those days (no manual just a pile of source code in a language I'd never heard of:-)
 
@DavidCarlisle ooh! :)
 
@DavidCarlisle Do you know anything about quail?
 
11:52 AM
3
A: TUG Membership: Names for 2013

JakeI would like to nominate myself. I'd love to be a TUG member for a year, and I'd take it as motivation to finally write the TUGboat article on using PGFPlots to create Tufte style scatter plots (a follow-up to the bar chart article on http://latex-community.org/know-how/437-tufte-charts).

Gentlemen, to the upvote button!
 
@AndrewStacey I assume you mean none of these (and that therefore my answer is no)
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Quail may also refer to: * Buttonquail, a bird in the family Turnicidae * Quail, Texas, U.S., a census-designated place * ADM-20 Quail, an unmanned drone aircraft * HMS Quail, several ships of the Royal Navy * USS Quail (AM-15), a Lapwing-class minesweeper See also * Quail Island (disambiguation) * * The Quails, a UK indie band * The Quails (US band), a punk band * Quayle, a surname
 
12:08 PM
@DavidCarlisle By implication you are an expert in at least one of those meanings of "quail". My bet is on the UK indie band.
But no, I meant quail as in the emacs input-method system.
 
@AndrewStacey no I don't think so, at least I don't recognise the name quail, I use the emacs input methods a bit, but just whatever is in the default install
 
12:29 PM
@AndrewStacey I read "quali". :) We have something close here - "qualis" - which is the rating system for conferences and journals. :)
 
ohh I guess new user david epstein from coventry is en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_B._A._Epstein
 
@PauloCereda Voted.
 
@egreg Thanks. :)
 
1:12 PM
@PauloCereda I tried, but whatever I do I can't upvote again ;-)
@PauloCereda You wouldn't believe what actual uses there are for ducks! rubber ducking, tsk.
Rubber duck debugging, rubber ducking, and the rubber duckie test are informal terms used in software engineering to refer to a method of debugging code. The name is a reference to a likely apocryphal story in which an unnamed expert programmer would keep a rubber duck by his desk at all times, and debug his code by forcing himself to explain it, line-by-line, to the duck. To use this process, a programmer explains code to an inanimate object, such as a rubber duck, in the expectation that upon reaching a piece of incorrect code and trying to explain it, the programmer will notice his/her...
 
@StephanLehmke OMG! :)
I used to have a Tux penguin near my desktop. :P
@StephanLehmke Thanks! :)
 
@PauloCereda I have a TeX lion ;-)
 
@StephanLehmke Wow! :)
 
1:34 PM
user image
2
 
1:52 PM
@StephanLehmke Awesome! :)
The lion looks so cute. :)
 
@PauloCereda do you mean to imply that the children don't?
 
@DavidCarlisle Hey! You are mean.
:)
 
@PauloCereda only to vi users (who don't count). I'm not mean to people
 
I see we are getting a good collection of names on the TUG thread. We may actually have a choice of candidates for the community to choose from :-)
 
2:23 PM
@StephanLehmke you have a 4x3.2GHz laptop?
 
@tohecz Don't think so. I believe the maximum is 2.7Ghz. But my proficiency certainly ends at the border of the emacs window ;-)
 
@StephanLehmke still, my 2x2.2GHz with effective power 2x550MHz due to very bad cooling ...
 
@tohecz Well I sometimes have TeX runs exceeding one hour. So this means I can effectively start four test runs at a time ;-)
 
@StephanLehmke ... or that you can happily let TeX do its work and procrastinate on the other 3 processors ;)
 
@tohecz Very true. So you can observe my workload: When I'm silent I'm coding, when I'm chatty I'm testing ;-)
 
2:51 PM
@Aarthi: meta.tex.stackexchange.com/questions/2923/… Thanks a lot for being so kind. :)
 
3:04 PM
!!/question you are in meta, congrats!
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: What?
Nevermind.
 
!!/help texdef
 
@tohecz **Psmith, the TeX bot:** I'm deeply sorry, old chap, but the command `helo` does not exist. Did you mean: `help`
@tohecz **Psmith, the TeX bot:** According to my book, `texdef` runs our favourite tool `texdef` with the provided arguments.
 
!!/texdef -t latex dotfill
 
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\dotfill:
macro:->\leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ .44em{\hss .\hss }\hfill \kern \z@
 
!!/list
 
3:06 PM
@JosephWright Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm able to recognize the following commands: help, list, cricket, ctan, texdef, eightball, question, choose. You probably noticed that all commands must start with !!/ followed by the command name, didn't you? Splendid!
 
!!/cricket
 
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Let's take a look at the last cricket results:

- Australia 322/10 &  163/10 * v South Africa 225/10 &  569/10
- Chittagong Division 296/10  v Barisal Division 204/10 &  97/3 *
- Dhaka Division 121/3 &  229/10 * v Khulna Division 171/10 &  268/10
- Dhaka Metropolis 147/1 &  253/10 * v Rangpur Division 129/10 &  266/9
- Sylhet Division 218/10 &  188/8 * v Rajshahi Division 390/10
- Gujarat 566/10  v Hyderabad (India) 291/4 *
- Mumbai 297/10 &  294/5  v Bengal 47 &  201/10 *
@JosephWright Look at the last line of the output. :)
 
!!/choose cricket, football
 
@Jörg Psmith, the TeX bot: The great oracle says: cricket
 
Noooooo
 
3:09 PM
This bot is biased.
 
Has @DavidCarlisle programmed it?
 
@Jörg No it would have shown no bias had that been the case.
 
!!/question Do you like pie?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: lol
!!/question I'm serious, do you like pie?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: lol
LOL
Yay, @StefanKottwitz is here! :)
 
3:36 PM
@DavidCarlisle your emacs answer has been flagged ;-)
 
@StephanLehmke as offensive to vi users?
 
@DavidCarlisle As "not an answer". Maybe because you only answered the first question. You should add a comment to ask one question at a time ;-)
 
@StephanLehmke how can you tell?
 
@DavidCarlisle I liked it. Very Zen answer.
 
@DavidCarlisle I got the flag for review.
 
3:40 PM
@StephanLehmke perhaps they filter me from reviewing my own answers:-)
 
@DavidCarlisle Ok. Do you have alternative/better suggestions for my use case?
 
@DavidCarlisle It was not me. :) I actually encouraged your answer. :)
 
@DavidCarlisle But other people will probably expand on it, so that Zen effect will be lost.
 
@FaheemMitha sorry what was the use case I think I just saw the TX comment go past in chat
@FaheemMitha I can revert the edits....
 
@DavidCarlisle Getting a long table header to wrap at a particular width while still able to justify the contents of the column. I think p{width} does the former, but then one cannot justify the column.
@DavidCarlisle Ooh. Hard ball.
@DavidCarlisle I actually don't know how to do this with tabularx if it is even possible - I've been meaning to read the documentation.
But reading documentation gets wearisome, and I do too much of it. Also, LaTeX package documentation lacks entertainment value. Maybe if they added some lions.
Or perhaps lolcats.
 
3:44 PM
@FaheemMitha you can justify p columns in exactly the same way as X ones. tabularx just does a relatively inefficient multipass algorithm to fill in the width and then literally just inserts p{zzz} for some zzz. So if you know in advance the width you want then just use that.
 
@DavidCarlisle Uh oh. Then we'll get another thread in meta...
 
@DavidCarlisle It seems from my LaTeX book one can either stick p{width} in, or c, but not both.
Am I misunderstanding something?
 
@FaheemMitha c doesn't justify lines it just centers a single line entry If you want centering you want \centering (whether you use X or p)
 
@DavidCarlisle Um, we are talking about tabular, right? I mean, you get something like \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|} and that centers those columns, as far as I can tell. Or one can put in like p{2cm} instead, but not both as far as I can tell.
 
array package >{\centering}p{2cm} or just put \centering at the start of the cell.
@FaheemMitha centering in a p column is exactly the same as centering in a \parbox (because it's the same thing) you need \centering before the text is typeset.
 
3:50 PM
@DavidCarlisle Ok. You mean like \begin{tabular}{|\centering p{2cm}|c|c|} ?
@DavidCarlisle Ok.
 
@FaheemMitha \begin{tabular}{|>{\centering}p{2cm}|c|c|}
 
>{\centering} the > means "poke this in the start of every cell in this column"
 
@DavidCarlisle Ok, thanks. Is this using the array package?
 
@FaheemMitha for > yes.
 
Also, is this worth posting as a question or too trivial? I searched, but did not find an answer for this.
@DavidCarlisle Ok.
 
3:52 PM
@FaheemMitha you gave the reason for not finding the answer earlier (not reading package doc:-)
 
@DavidCarlisle Well, I didn't know what package doc to read, in this case.
 
@FaheemMitha all of them:-)
 
@egreg Thanks. didn't notice you had posted there.
So that's a no on posting then?
 
@FaheemMitha no, it would just mean someone had to search to find a duplicate and vote to close (I assume it is a duplicate of something)
 
@DavidCarlisle Well, I didn't see it addressed anywhere, but I'll do a search again
Ok, I see tex.stackexchange.com/questions/73476/… for example uses this syntax.
And is the array package also standard? Those journals can be difficult about such things.
 
3:58 PM
@doncherry " don't think I need to explain why I don't deem this an adequate answer" The OP asked two questions in his question. the answer is a complete answer to the first of them. It doesn't address the second question, but that's not a real question as it just invites discussion had the second part been asked as a question it would be closed as not constructive.
 
@FaheemMitha Standard: part of the core LaTeX distribution
 
@JosephWright Thanks.
A question mentions booktabs. This looks like something more nonstandard, but is it good stuff?
 
@FaheemMitha booktabs isn't a standard package (although it has a lot of fans on this site) It's good if you want exactly the layout the author likes, but by design it tries to convince you that any other design is abhorrent and shouldn't be attempted....
 
@DavidCarlisle I see. Thanks for the information. I'll take a look.
 
@DavidCarlisle I'd say the docs are right for 'formal' tables
@FaheemMitha It's been stable (unchanged) for several years, and so should be available on a lot of systems
 
4:06 PM
@JosephWright Thanks. I like things to look pretty, so I'll see what I think. Journals can be difficult about packages though.
 
@FaheemMitha Very true: I'd be tempted to consider the advice about vertical rules (which needs no packages), even if you decide against using booktabs.
 
@JosephWright Oh, I came across that before somewhere. Somebody wrote an answer here suggesting that I use tables with no vertical rules, because they were ugly.
Yes, it was this one.
5
A: Subtable inside a table / Adjusting table column width on the fly

WernerPerhaps a suggestion, but here is an alternative to your current set up. I've used tabularx to allow for variable-width tabular columns (via column type X), filling up to some fixed with using the tabularx environment. Additionally, booktabs provide a cleaner spread of tables vertically, while vi...

 
@FaheemMitha The argument against them is they often suggest that the table is poorly thought out: if you need vertical rules, it's likely the table is hard to follow, while if you can follow it without them then they are not really adding anything
 
@JosephWright I guess that is a good point.
 
@FaheemMitha @DavidCarlisle will doubtless point out that there are cases where vertical rules make sense, but these tend to be more specialised
 
4:10 PM
@FaheemMitha If you post a table to this site using black vertical rules then you inevitably get loads of comments saying it's ugly and you should read the booktabs doc. If on the other hand you post a table with 3d translucent shadowed multi-colour tikz annotations, you get up-voted through the roof.
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@DavidCarlisle Good point :-)
 
@DavidCarlisle Heh.
I should try a table with 3d translucent shadowed multi-colour tikz annotations and see how the journal reacts.
Maybe it will set a trend.
 
@DavidCarlisle For me, same point applies: colour can be useful, but should be used only when there is some reasoning which means it adds something
@FaheemMitha Certainly take a look at how your target journal handles tables
 
@JosephWright Yes, good point.
 
@JosephWright I second this idea.
!!/texdef -t latex dotfill
 
4:26 PM
@tohecz Psmith, the TeX bot: I'm deeply sorry, old chap, but the command texdoc does not exist. Did you mean: texdef
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\dotfill:
macro:->\leavevmode \cleaders \hb@xt@ .44em{\hss .\hss }\hfill \kern \z@
 
!!/texdef dotfill
 
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\dotfill:
macro:->\cleaders \hbox {$\m@th \mkern 1.5mu.\mkern 1.5mu$}\hfill
 
I like better LaTeX's definition, because the size is known.
 
@PauloCereda Is something up?
@egreg I'd prefer one with a variable that could be adjusted by the user
 
@JosephWright It's not a problem to define it, is it?
 
4:31 PM
@egreg No, but I have my LaTeX3 hat on :-)
 
@JosephWright Actually, there should be a parameter for this, as for many other aspects of typesetting. So a standard spacing defined by a parameter, which is however modifiable locally.
 
@egreg Quite
 
@egreg yeah, e.g. in csquotes for each language ;)
 
@egreg Prod @FrankMittelbach to get on with things (also @DavidCarlisle) :-)
 
!!/texdef -t latex hss
 
4:36 PM
!!/taylor-series logarithm of 1 + x
 
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\hss:
\hss


@AndrewStacey **Psmith, the TeX bot:** I'm deeply sorry, old chap, but the command `taylor-series` does not exist.
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\hss:
\hss
 
@PauloCereda Needs a few more "what-ho"s and "pip-pip"s.
 
!!/texdef -t latex hss
 
Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Here's the output from texdef:

\hss:
\hss
@JosephWright texdoc? I might add something. :)
@AndrewStacey ooh! :)
 
@PauloCereda For instance the corresponding URL for texdoc.net
 
4:50 PM
@AndrewStacey I'd vote for some "jolly goods" scattered in there.
 
@egreg Ah. :)
!!/question Do you like ice cream?
@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: What?
 
@PauloCereda I guess that converting the documentation into PNG and showing here all the pages wouldn't be so well behaved: think to !!/texdoc pgf :)
 
@egreg I'd be banned in a nutshell. :)
 
@FaheemMitha Absolutely. And for the really authentic feel one should have a few elderly maiden aunts flying around.
 
@PauloCereda On the Tabor island, like Ayrton in Les Enfants du capitaine Grant
 
4:55 PM
!!/eightball Do you like waffles?
 
@AndrewStacey Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: as I see it, yes.
 
!!/eightball should crumpets be lightly toasted (as opposed to crisply toasted)?
 
@AndrewStacey Psmith, the TeX bot: The great 8-ball says: only egreg knows the answer.
@egreg Uh-oh. :)
 
@PauloCereda Have you read that book?
 
@egreg I was not a fan of Verne, but I read it. :)
 

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