@FaheemMitha In a tabular you are in an alignment. However, after \\ you are allowed to add material that goes between rows (so not subject to alignment), provided it's in \noalign; macros such as \hline use this feature.
The use of \noalign is quite common.
For example here \noalign is used with \vskip{}to control the height of a table cell.
How does \noalign work in general, and how does it work with \vskip?
What is the logic behind the use of \noalign{\vskip}?
That's the case when it is not writing a line? Or in either case? In one case it is setting the \label it looks like, which I suppose amounts to writing to .aux.
Guys, moral question: I have a printed copy of the TeXbook. Would it be wrong to generate the PDF from the source (of course, with some trickery), so I could have a "pocket" version for me to take in my trips, while the original remains pristine in the bookshelf? :)
@FaheemMitha Well, it puts a whatsit between rows, which contains the instruction for writing the label in the .aux file. Other than that nothing affecting the table is inserted. But if the control sequence used for the test is not defined, then \zzapline comes into action.
This question came up in discussions surrounding the question How to replace a large block of text by an empty block of the same size?, which basically asks for a vmode analog of \phantom. My question thus focuses on vertical mode only.
One approach is to collect the material to be hidden in a v...
A new study in PLOS ONE1 concludes that even novice MS Word users perform better than expert LaTeX users in document creation.
I have read the article and I feel like I have identified some flaws in their approach and design but I figured this community would be the best positioned to rigorousl...
@JosephWright We started discussing it here earlier. But as a question, it's mainly discussion at the moment until someone does some follow-up studies.
@FaheemMitha It is a bit. And the rhetoric in the article seems to come down very hard against LaTeX as if they has a bad childhood experience with it. :)
"A striking result of our study is that LaTeX users are highly satisfied with their system despite reduced usability and productivity." And so on, and so forth. So, apparently we're all brainwashed by the wicked LaTeX cabal.
@JosephWright True. But I think the article is just trying to estimate overall productivity. Which is reasonable, I suppose. I just find the results hard to believe.
Hmm, let me check to see how they are measuring expert.
"Given these numbers it remains an open question to determine the amount of taxpayer money that is spent worldwide for researchers to use LaTeX over a more efficient document preparation system, which would free up their time to advance their respective field."
"And, second, preventing researchers from producing documents in LaTeX would save time and money to maximize the benefit of research and development for both the research team and the public."
@FaheemMitha I suggest they fiddle with a two-column document template with inserted graphics when one of the authors wants to rework the text just before submission
@FaheemMitha On that basis classical typewriter manuscripts are the right way to go (which is more-or-less what I do whatever tool I'm using, if given the option)
Winner for 'Pain in the neck' style is Chemistry - A European Journal: initial submission in a template, strip out to a manuscript once accepted (including removing all graphics, etc.). I really 'love' that!
@FaheemMitha I write some templates for some publishers, but as they are all moving to commercial fonts it's now more-or-less impossible to match the style in LaTeX
@FaheemMitha Yes, for my own documents
@FaheemMitha Work-wise, the biggest single use is plots
@FaheemMitha Wrote a book chapter recently (with a more senior colleague). Submission to the editors had to be in Word, some 'fun' with references as a result. PDF proof I have is made using dvips ;-)
@FaheemMitha I do my lecture notes in beamer: again, there is a clear gain as I can do conditional text inclusion, which is in the handouts but not on screen. (Again, I have colleagues who do the same in Word/PowerPoint but thus need two parallel docs)
@JosephWright I hate to override the voters, but is there a way for to make this an Opinion Based close rather Off Topic. It just seems weird to say that it's off topic.
@JosephWright Sure, but given that the paper is specifically about LaTeX, it's so strange for it to just be marked as off topic. For example, we might have a question about LaTeX and accessibility factors for the visually impaired, and that wouldn't be off topic, I shouldn't think.
@egreg I don't know fi you are still there, but even putting \zz first gives the same error. My guess is that I am missing something obvious. Here is a paste - paste.lisp.org/display/144913
@FaheemMitha I'm afraid that \DTLforeach places things in a way that can't make TeX see \zz before it has started typesetting a cell. Even a seemingly innocuous \relax would cause this.
@egreg In my question, or in david's answer? I just want to include rows that are actually referenced in the text (by label). Seems like a natural thing to try to do.
In Automatically creating a table from datatool using references in the text I asked a question about datatool automatically generating a table based on references to the text.
David Carlisle answered it, but I've had difficulty adapting the answer to the format of the question; namely a loop ov...
Then you should check whether \RefID is both a substring of #1 and of \ReferencedIDs. I don't know how to do it in the <condition> argument to \DTLforeach, though.
The documentation is pretty cryptic on the usage of \ifthenelse.
Should I merge my revised example code in my followup question into my original question? If I do, it will get messy. On the other hand, keeping them separate is artificial. They are two questions which are essentially identical.
@JosephWright how many listed members of the LaTeX 3 team are currently active, for some value of current?
@JosephWright "The project team can be reached via e-mail, but please send general questions about LaTeX, LaTeX use and where to get LaTeX to the usenet news group comp.text.tex." This doesn't (but could) mention tex.sx.
Since Davids approach apparently does not work (per @egreg) should I merge this code back into the main question, or just drop it? — Faheem Mitha9 secs ago
@cfr: on a more serious note, would you like to help us with Welsh language support for arara (only the command line application, not the manual)? I wanted to force kindly ask @Brent to write, but he said his Welsh is rusty. :)
@FaheemMitha A \ref command in the text writes an annotation in the .aux file that causes, at begin document, the \ReferencedIDs macro to be populated. Then you can use it when \DTLforeach is called to see if the current ID has been referenced in the text.
@PauloCereda I will try if @Brent.Longborough will proof-read it. I will also give no guarantees. I am not a first language speaker. I make lots of cambymeriadau!
@PauloCereda On second thoughts, what exactly needs translation? Is it at least stuff for which the vocabulary is likely to exist? (This is a problem for Welsh...)
@cfr: I wanted Cockney Rhyming Slang to appear as well, but things don't look lemon squeesy. :)
@cfr Yes, it is! :) We are supporting direct UTF-8 in localization for the first time! :)
@cfr It's entirely up to the translator. My English is terrible, as it's reflected in the messages. :) The Portuguese translation is also complex because some things said in English are quite different in Portuguese. :)
@PauloCereda I'm serious. In English, it is fairly straightforward. In Welsh, how formal? is a key question. Presumably, not formal-like-the-Bible. But there's formal-like-the-news. Formal-like-an-article. Formal-like-a-talk. ...
@PauloCereda Something like South-Walian informal with a bit of extra grammatical correctness thrown in. Sort of gwdihŵs with some extra treigladau, explicit pronouns and mostly cwmpasog verb forms.
The use of \noalign is quite common.
For example here \noalign is used with \vskip{}to control the height of a table cell.
How does \noalign work in general, and how does it work with \vskip?
What is the logic behind the use of \noalign{\vskip}?
A new study in PLOS ONE1 concludes that even novice MS Word users perform better than expert LaTeX users in document creation.
I have read the article and I feel like I have identified some flaws in their approach and design but I figured this community would be the best positioned to rigorousl...
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{longtable}
\makeatletter
\let\oldref\ref
\def\ref#1{\immediate\write\@auxout{\string\expandafter\gdef\noexpand\csname REF:#1\string\endcsname{}}%
\oldref{#1}}
\def\zz#1#2{\noalign{%
\expandafter\ifx\csname REF:#1\endcsname\@empty
\def\@cu...
