Is it possible that lualatex can simply hang when compiling a latex document? I mean, no error and no messages, just hangs in the middle of compiling a latex file? I do not think I've ever seen it just hang before. I wait and wait, then had to do CTRL-C. Using TL 2018. Any one seen such a case before?
I found the problem. So I am ok. added a missing \newcommand for some math symbol, and now it does not hang. THe latex was generated by Maple, which uses very old arcane latex commands still, like \rm and \it and such. But I never seen lualatex hangs before, that is all.
@Nasser yes of course, ask Alan Turing. pdftex can as well.
@Nasser an undefined command would not make it loop, but of course if the existing definition loops and you redefine it not to loop, that would cure it.
@DavidCarlisle ;-). but true, emacs has a proper mailing list to report issues/features. But texmaker has a curious note at the bottom of the webpage " ... another latex editor, not compatible with Texmaker, which pretends to be based on Texmaker to trick users." Not really inspiring confience .
@nbro You can pass arguments to styles. If you have foo/.style={... something with #1}, then you can say foo=bar, and the #1 in the style definition will be replaced by bar.
@nbro One can also set a default value, so if you also have foo/.default=bar, then using either foo or foo=bar gives the same result.
But I am not using foo=bar anywhere in my code, but if I remove #1 the style changes anyway. This is my full style of the node [->, >=stealth', level/.style={sibling distance = 8cm/#1, level distance = 1.8cm}.
@nbro foo and bar were examples/placeholders. (Sorry, they're commonly used in programming, I used them without thought.) By the way, if you hover the cursor over a message, you'll see an arrow going down-right show up on the right side. Click that to reply to a specific message. This has the benefit that the user is notified of a message, like you were of this.
@TorbjørnT. Yes, I am aware of the fact that foo and bar are commonly used in examples. I was just not getting your explanation. Sorry for not tagging you. Actually, I am also aware of this functionality, but I forgot to do it.
@nbro Well, the explanation was lacking a bit, in relation to trees. That the #1 refers to an argument passed to the style is correct, but the level style in particular is automatically executed at each level in a tree, and the argument passed to it is the level number. See this part in the manual:
My tikzpicture is too wide. I already looked at this question tex.stackexchange.com/q/106085/63097, but the suggestion of using scale is not exactly what I am looking for, as that changes the proportions of my tikzpicture
I thought about wrapping the tikzpicture inside a figure, but I am also not sure how to scale the whole figure without changing the proportions of the tikzpicture
@nbro Reduce the size and/or distance between the elements in the diagram. I wouldn't expect scale to change the proportions (it should scale by the same factor in both x- and y-direction).
@nbro A figure environment has nothing whatsoever to do with scaling. A last resort could be \resizebox{\textwidth}{!}{ <tikzpicture here> }.
@nbro I don't understand why a too wide tikzpicture would cause an algorithm to disappear, unless you've somehow forced the two to be on the same line. \resizebox will definitely change the dimensions of a tikzpicture, so again I don't understand. Can you show a complete example?
@nbro The purpose of that is to generate a document that is cropped to the boundaries of, for example, a tikzpicture. Remove that package, as well as \PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture} \setlength{\PreviewBorder}{10pt}.
Essentially, I have a tikzpicture, which I would like to use as a template that contains placeholders or variables. I would like to include this picture in my main document several times, by replacing these placeholders or variables with different values
Is this feasible in Latex?
In other words, I would like to avoid to copy and paste a tikzpicture multiple times, where only a few parameters or values change
It would be nice if it's possible to specify these placeholders in the tikzpicture, and, when \input{mytikzpic}, to pass the concrete values
@TorbjørnT. but they claim to be a fork made in 2009 and that should be fairly easy to check. So why do the texmaker developers claim TeXstudio is not based on it (well, I did not check the facts, but it seems unlikely the TeXstudio developers would claim this if it wasn't true)
@nbro depending what you want to do there may be tikz specific code, but at the most general level use \fooA and \fooB in your template and then define those macros to be whatever you want them to be each time you use the code
@DavidCarlisle VIM 1.0 was developed 1988, texmaker 2003, so that seems unlikely. Perhaps Emacs the OS used it as an editor for a while but concluded it was a too good editor for their approach of not providing one :)
One thing I found frustrating about tex and latex is the documentation. When I need to do something I have no idea how to start, I need to look into a 400 pages manual. Also, I am using TexMaker, and it apparently doesn't even support an easy way to open a package's manual
@Skillmon I don't think the m in vim signifies anything so really it's from 1976 isn't it?
@nbro if you have texlive you don't need an editor to open a manual for you, you can just type texdoc array and get the manual for array package. I assume miktex has something similar.
@nbro well it's not really compiled at all, as I say it's a macro expansion language not a compiler. LaTeX commands are not functions in a compiled language they are macros that get replaced inline by their replacement texts each time.
@nbro note I probably wouldn't \input the file multiple times it will work but file input is often the slowest part of the whole process, so it would certainly be quicker to define a macro with the tikzpicture and re-use it rather than input it each time. In 1985 if you had 600K of memory, using the filesystem for temporary storage made a lot of sense, but even if latex hasn't changed much since then, you probably have more memory available now...
@nbro possibly as I say the details depend on details you haven't shown (you could ask a question on site) but I meant something simpler nothing about tikz or pgf, if your template \mytemplate is defined as \def\mytemplate{...\fooA...\fooB.....\fooZ} then there are 26 parameters you can change before calling the template, such as: \renewcommand\fooP{this value} \mytemplate
@Skillmon Not sure exactly what Pascal Brachet (the Texmaker developer) meant by that, perhaps that even though TexMakerX was a fork, there is no (other) relation between the two projects. From tug.org/pipermail/protext/2011q3/000377.html and sourceforge.net/blog/texmakerx-is-now-texstudio there seems to have been some confusion between the two by users, and Mr. Brachet may have been a bit annoyed by this.
@TorbjørnT. that seems to be the case and according to one of the links you posted the note on the page was a different one back in the days. I still find the note currently on texmaker's homepage strange as it assumes malevolent intent. He seems to be really annoyed by TeXstudio.
@DavidCarlisle This gist.github.com/nbro/d50b2ce40fd40a1c7a53186e4e083c87 is the code I would like to make a template of. Currently, this code is placed in its own .tex file, which I am \input{template} in my main .tex file. Now, I tried to do what you suggested, that is, to wrap that code in a \def\mytemplate{ here goes my code that is in the gist }, but when I do \input{template}, the code is automatically inserted in that place, without I having to write \mytemplate.
I am not really familiar with either input or macros.
Note that, in the gist, so far, I have defined only two variables, at the end, called \aalpha and \abeta, but all those infinities need to be variables.
@nbro you should ask a question on the main site (with code inline not a link to a gist) but anyway if you wrap that code with \def\mytemplate{ at the start and } at the end then \input{template} won't make a tikzpicture it will just define \mytemplate and then you can use taht command wherever you need it, after defining \aalpha and \abeta to whetver you want
@DavidCarlisle I did that, as I said above. But when I \input{template}, in my case the file is actually called game-tree.tex, then I do \input{game-tree}, the code inside the macro is executed, without calling \alphabetadiagram, which is the name I gave to the macro, in \def\alphabetadiagram{...}
@nbro no it can't do that if you go \def\foo{....} then the ..... is never executed at all, it doesn't even need to be defined, as long as {} match up, then \foo will be defined.
@nbro You make a small example and ask a question on the main site, like I said. As a general rule I don't follow external links to examples, I'll look this time but last one...
@nbro your example makes no output (as you don't call the macro) and gives the error ! Illegal parameter number in definition of \alphabetadiagram. because you need to double # to ## when wrapping it in a macro.
(/usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/kvsetkeys.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/etexcmds.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifluatex.sty))))
(/usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/pdftexcmds.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2018/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg))
*geometry* driver: auto-detecting
*geometry* detected driver: pdftex
(./game-tree.tex
! Illegal parameter number in definition of \alphabetadiagram.
@DavidCarlisle Yes, that solves the problem. But, if look at my template, wasn't #1 supposed to be a placeholder? Why do I need to escape it, if it's not a real character?
I realize that I am asking here too many technical questions, and, as you said, I should ask them on the main website
But here, I think, it's more interactive and I learn more from these discussions
It's OK to ask on chat but you should not expect an answer (although you may get one anyway).
The Q&A site is designed for asynchronous help, you ask a question and it stays visible and can be answered by anyone at any time that they feel convenient.
If you ask in chat then although the archive...
@DavidCarlisle As I had said above, I started this template from another one, which contained that #1. Apparently, as someone said above, it's used as a placeholder. If I remove it, the style will change. I am not sure how to obtain the same appearance of the diagram without that #1.
@DavidCarlisle Anyway, yes, I still want to use and redefine the values of \aalpha, etc
@DavidCarlisle I will try to follow those guidelines. I am sorry for bothering you
@nbro well you must have been passing in a value for #1 somewhere? if it was working before you wrapped it in the \def then you need ## to get a #
@nbro well as you see it doesn't bother me too much and I don't always follow those rules, but the point of the site is to build up long term collection of answers not to provide personal free consultancy so if you push too far I just remind you:-)
@DavidCarlisle In this message chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/47277590#47277590, Torbjørn explains why that #1 is needed: essentially, the level number is passed as an argument to this variable, so that the value of the attribute sibling distance a of the node is computed dynamically, depending on the level of the tree
I've seen sometimes that people use a double pound sign (##) when defining/using arguments.
What is the difference between the normal argument, #1, and the double sign one, ##1? Are there any restrictions for its use? Can you list the good practices, if any, for this type of arguments.
Yeah, I agree. But sometimes I feel my questions are too elementary. Anyway, next time I try to ask a question on the main website
I think one of the reasons why I've visited this chat and asked for help several times is because you guys, here, are really qualified and nice with the visitors
I've seen sometimes that people use a double pound sign (##) when defining/using arguments.
What is the difference between the normal argument, #1, and the double sign one, ##1? Are there any restrictions for its use? Can you list the good practices, if any, for this type of arguments.
