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12:02 AM
@DavidCarlisle as you are gone, thank you for the answers!
 
kan
12:45 AM
@Kirill Hey Kirill!
I have never contributed to LaTeX.
But I think one can contribute to LaTeX in many ways without knowing all the ins and outs of TeX, the program. Getting some programming background in more standard languages would be a great start. Being trained in Mathematics makes this infinitely easier -- it becomes an exercise in learning a new language and trying to express your ideas in it. Good luck!
 
 
3 hours later…
4:01 AM
Good morning guys.
If I create a question on tex.stackexchange, can I delete it later?
Also, can i create a file and store its contents in a variable using latex? I am planning to conditionally typeset my documents, based on the values of that variable
something like

IfFileExists
readfile
var x = filecontents

if x = 0{
\newcommand{\product}{foo}
}
if x = 1{
\newcommand{\product}{bar}
}
 
4:48 AM
@manucpp Good morning! Of course you can, there's a delete button down on the left, after share edit close.
 
Thanks @CarLaTeX
If you'd be so kind as to answer my other predicament as well
0
Q: Read a file and store its contents in a variable

manucppI am trying to implement single sourcing such that same document can be conditionally typeset for number of purposes. This is what I would like to do. \IfFileExists{../DecMaker.txt}{ var x = DecMaker.txt %the file will contain a single digit number if x = 0{ \newcommand{\product}...

I couldn't find a duplicate. If it is indeed one, I'd be more than happy to get rid of it...
 
@manucpp Unfortunately this is too much above my level of knowledge, but don't worry, I think you'll get an answer by some expert soon.
 
But you are an 11k user! Surely nothing in LaTeX is above your level of knowledge! :-)
 
@manucpp I'm only a beginner, I've seriously used LaTeX only for about a year, but also a beginner could reach 10k! BTW, as you saw, TH has already answered!
 
I have been using it for about an year too. You give hope to me. Thank you @CarLaTeX
 
5:05 AM
@manucpp You're welcome! And remember to accept the best answer which solves your problem (review also your old questions).
 
Thanks once again @CarLaTeX :)
 
@manucpp You're welcome once again, and don't hesitate to ask again if you have some problems!
19 mins ago, by manucpp
But you are an 11k user! Surely nothing in LaTeX is above your level of knowledge! :-)
@egreg @PauloCereda @DavidCarlisle @ChristianHupfer @Moriambar ^^^ LOL
BTW, why does the chat display 11k, whereas I'm reaching 10k?
 
5:32 AM
@CarLaTeX, it must be a sum of your points across the platforms
 
@manucpp Ooooh, I didn't know that...
 
6:13 AM
@CarLaTeX Lol. It was good to stop then, so people do not assume nothing in LaTeX is above my level of knowledge :P
 
@Moriambar No, you must go on, because your level of knowledge is above mine! :):):)
 
@CarLaTeX It's difficult to do, many people have better knowledge and are quicker, while I have something else to do, and lose the drive on tex.se
 
@Moriambar Of course, I have to work, too, now and then LOL
 
@CarLaTeX I mean I have to do many non-work related things in the evening. Answering at work is impossible
 
@manucpp Yes and no: once it has answers, you can't. The idea of the StackExchange model is that Q&A have value beyond the original person who asks.
 
6:22 AM
@Moriambar The same for me :):):):)
 
But it kinda feels like I am spamming, if the question is marked as duplicate. I'd like to do my bit to keep this site clean. :)
Hope you understand :P
@JosephWright
 
@JosephWright When @manucpp asked it, his/her question hadn't got an answer yet
 
 
2 hours later…
7:57 AM
@CarLaTeX No, users below 20k don't know @PauloCereda’s credit card number
 
@egreg I had worked in a credit card department for years, I can investigate in other ways (I'm joking, your credit card numbers are safe)
 
@CarLaTeX Are they? I worked in a similar department (via IT)
 
@Moriambar Don't do industrial espionage!
 
@CarLaTeX I'm not doing much anymore
 
8:26 AM
@CarLaTeX Just work hard to get at 20k and @PauloCereda will send the number: users above 20k are trusted, after all.
 
@egreg 20k is an unreachable goal from my perspective :) But not being trusted is the correct thing in my case
 
@CarLaTeX knowing @PauloCereda's credit card number is not so much of an advantage these days since @egreg drained the account.
 
@egreg Are you telling me that all the >20k user can buy on Amazon with @PauloCereda's card?
@DavidCarlisle Buying pineapple pizzas every day!
 
@CarLaTeX Brazilian ones are the best, he gets them imported specially.
 
@DavidCarlisle Brazil is the world's largest producer after Hawaii :):):)
 
8:33 AM
@CarLaTeX of pizza? :-)
 
@DavidCarlisle of pineapple pizza
 
@CarLaTeX Certainly so! ;-)
 
@egreg Ooooh
 
Thanks for the solution @egreg!
In case you are wondering, here is the question

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/377118/read-a-file-and-store-its-contents-in-a-variable
@CarLaTeX, but won't it lop off points from TH's?

(wrt the above question. TeX SE asks me not to have discussions in comments)
 
@manucpp Yes, but sometimes happens, see here: tex.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6819/101651
 
8:49 AM
@manucpp I steal ticks from @DavidCarlisle all the time
 
@CarLaTeX I have that guilt too! But I have way too few rep points to award them as bounty :(
 
@manucpp it's OK to take points off people the only bad thing is to give them to @egreg.
 
@egreg lol
@DavidCarlisle lol
You guys make an awesome combination. Ever tried in got talent or something?
 
@manucpp OK, don't worry, leave it as is, @egreg has already enough points :):):)
 
@manucpp unfortunately only one of us has talent so it wouldn't go well.
 
8:53 AM
@DavidCarlisle hahahahaha
 
@DavidCarlisle You admitted it, at last!
 
I'll go grab a tub of popcorn
 
@manucpp Hawaiian pizza is more satisfying
 
I am a fan of Hawaiian pizza. Sadly, we don't get much here
@egreg, also I wanted to use the value stored in the file to stop certain segments and allow others to appear in the finished PDF.
 
@manucpp \ifcase is your friend. Or \ifnum
 
8:59 AM
@manucpp OMG (@DavidCarlisle @egreg @Moriambar)
 
@manucpp heresy
 
@CarLaTeX I thought you'd be pleased to see that comment
 
@DavidCarlisle I can't believe there are pineapple pizza's fans around the world!
 
@egreg One question. When we retrieve that number from the file, is it a number or a string? Will \ifnum read it?
@CarLaTeX In my defence, I may have eaten an exceptionally prepared pizza :P
 
@manucpp \OSnumber is a macro. You can make store it into an integer register, if you so prefer, but \ifnum will read it anyway: \ifnum\OSnumber=2 good\else bad\fi (don't forget the space after the constant).
 
9:05 AM
@manucpp You have to know that pizza war here (Italians vs. rest of the world) is more merciless than editor war (Emacs vs. Vim) :)
 
@CarLaTeX =))
@CarLaTeX Isn't pizza Spanish? XD
 
@manucpp I pretend I have not seen it :P
 
@CarLaTeX it's that bad (the pizza war) huh! =))
 
@manucpp We Italians are trying to make the world understand what is good food and what is not, but there's no hope :)
 
@CarLaTeX Take it from us. We tried with the curry and the spices. It got watered down and manufactured on an industrial scale to no end. We got colonized, and sold as indentured labour, as an added bonus. XD
 
9:18 AM
@manucpp never heard this one before
 
@Moriambar oh, forgot to add. I am an Indian.
and lot of us enjoy dark humour. Hope that(dark humour) doesn't bother you guys.
 
@manucpp And someone there thinks that pizza is Spanish? This is still new. But I don't travel much so I guess I can often be wrong about what other people think
 
@manucpp There are worse situations, of course
 
@manucpp tex does not have strings or numbers, just (lists of) character tokens
 
@Moriambar I was pulling her leg of course! =))
@DavidCarlisle Thanks, that lessens my woes a bit. TeX and friends really are futuristic!
 
9:23 AM
@manucpp ahhhh be careful on what you say about pizza
 
@manucpp You should better have asked if pizza isn't english or worse american ;-).
 
@UlrikeFischer That would have made the joke obvious :P
 
@manucpp I found it obvious anyway ;-).
 
@UlrikeFischer Note to self: Damn! Should've come up with something better!
 
@manucpp Anyway, people with the sense of humor are very welcome here! :)
 
9:33 AM
@CarLaTeX unless they spell humour like an American in which case they are destined to eat American pizza for the rest of eternity
 
@DavidCarlisle Are you referring to a particular American (maybe I can imagine who is)?
 
@CarLaTeX er no follow the "reply" back arrow to see who my comment was referring to :-) (humo u r)
 
@DavidCarlisle Sorry, I missed it before!
@DavidCarlisle I think I have to switch to British English in my spell checker :$
 
@CarLaTeX Don't worry, Britons are known to borrow from languages without knowing the meaning and spelling of words.
2
 
@egreg pizza, piano and media, for example :)
 
9:45 AM
@egreg bien sûr!
 
@CarLaTeX We call them peejja and pyano. Well, most of us. =))
 
@manucpp peejja is not bad LOL
 
Oh no, I am bankrupt
 
10:00 AM
@PauloCereda I'm not surprised by it if you give your card number to all the >20k users! LOL
 
@CarLaTeX Hm. which one of these don't you trust?
 
@PauloCereda You could've waited until I was 20k
 
@PauloCereda You got mail!
 
@Moriambar oh no
 
@PauloCereda just think of all the arara royalties that will flood in once you release v4
 
10:06 AM
@UlrikeFischer ooh
@UlrikeFischer OH MY
@DavidCarlisle ooh TeX money
 
@PauloCereda Do you like it?
 
@UlrikeFischer replied. :)
 
@PauloCereda Sounds as if like it ;-) I hope they got the translation right (it was their own good idea).
 
@UlrikeFischer you mean that @PauloCereda spent all his money by himself?
 
@UlrikeFischer I think they did!
 
10:38 AM
hello.
If I may plug my question here:
0
Q: How to (neatly/correctly) underline with a tikz rectangle?

nutty about nattyIn the following MWE, I'd like the red-fading-tikz-rectangle-line to underline the three "subtiles". Before I start tinkering and guessworking around: How to accomplish this neatly? \PassOptionsToPackage{svgnames}{xcolor} \documentclass[a4paper]{article} \usepackage[framemethod=TikZ]{mdframe...

:-)
 
@PauloCereda Ducks are always well aligned :)
 
@CarLaTeX oh those are geese, but I do believe the lemma still applies. :)
 
@PauloCereda Of course :):):)
 
11:47 AM
Dear Figaro, "...io son Lindoro, che fido v'adoro..." but I would have preferred "Ecco, ridente in cielo spunta la bella aurora...". No "aurora" this time. ;-) — Gabriele Nicolardi 43 mins ago
2
 
@egreg ooh
user image
2
 
@PauloCereda LOL
 
@PauloCereda =))
 
@PauloCereda genius
 
yo'
12:23 PM
Going to Paris tomorrow, haven't been there for a year, soooo long
 
@yo' yay
 
1:20 PM
@UlrikeFischer -- oh, come now! some of us from the u.s. (i can't speak for canada, which i however do find quite civilized) are reasonably selective about pizza. even @egreg has approved of some that i've described as my favorites.
 
I eat Σ* pizza, no problem at all. :)
 
1:39 PM
@egreg you are as ineffective as ever, it seems:-)
I've been pushing Martin to fix it for some months. — egreg 2 hours ago
 
@DavidCarlisle Did you have any better result?
 
@egreg see updates to standalone....
 
@DavidCarlisle :)
 
@egreg or geometry
 
@DavidCarlisle: one for M: thegamecrafter.com/games/crazy-dos
 
1:42 PM
@PauloCereda isn't that more for people of my age who have seen a floppy disk?
 
@DavidCarlisle I did a PR on texdef...
 
@PauloCereda and it was updated, and pushed to ctan within hours?
 
@DavidCarlisle Nah it's a card game :)
@DavidCarlisle Nope. :)
 
@PauloCereda if Martin was here could mod ping the author to get his attention.
 
@DavidCarlisle LOL
 
1:47 PM
@PauloCereda I left a comment there
 
@DavidCarlisle Wow, I was afraid of that happening. Things are deprecated for a reason...
 
@DavidCarlisle -- hmmmmph!
 
@barbarabeeton David is mean
 
2:04 PM
hello again. could someone plz help me get unstuck (and move on) here?
1
Q: How to (neatly/correctly) underline with a tikz rectangle?

nutty about nattyIn the following MWE, I'd like the red-fading-tikz-rectangle-line to underline the three "subtiles". Before I start tinkering and guessworking around: How to accomplish this neatly? \PassOptionsToPackage{svgnames}{xcolor} \documentclass[a4paper]{article} \usepackage[framemethod=TikZ]{mdframe...

of the three answers so far marsupilam's seems closest to the target.
alas, there's a minor tweak missing, see edit to my original question:
(under-)line of fixed length
thank you so much!!
 
2:48 PM
@barbarabeeton pizza tonight for you!
@nuttyaboutnatty anyone here will have seen any questions on the main site there really is no need to ping every time.
3
 
@DavidCarlisle -- maybe, but more likely sushi. or, if the band isn't playing, good portuguese bacalhao.
 
@TeXnician typo in my code, shocking!
3
 
@barbarabeeton ooh I like sushi, but it's been a while since I ate it. :( Also, bacalhau is good! :)
 
3:05 PM
@PauloCereda -- the problem with bacalhau is deciding which preparation to choose. there must be a hundred! (but not all at the same restaurant.)
 
@barbarabeeton I faced this dilemma when in Madeira and Lisbon. :) Which reminds me, I have a report to make about my trip!
 
@PauloCereda -- i guess the report should go promptly to the local folks who encouraged you to submit the paper. and then, how about some attention to the thesis?
 
@barbarabeeton ooh thesis is going steady, I guess. :)
@JosephWright: Question: what should one do when one person has a "strange" username, which might sound sensitive in languages other than English?
 
@DavidCarlisle Yeah, I know. The one time I want to c&p something from TeX.SX...
 
3:31 PM
@PauloCereda steady like the state of Queen Victoria's health?
 
@DavidCarlisle uh-oh
 
4:20 PM
@DavidCarlisle Is she well?
 
4:37 PM
@egreg she's stable.
 
@DavidCarlisle Is this supposed to happen? Compile with XeLaTeX.
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{fontspec}

\DeclareUnicodeEncoding{foo}{
  \input{tuenc.def}
}
 
@egreg clearly not enough zzz
@egreg not sure, other *enc.def files also have csnames with @ so a possibly undocumented convention might be that the caller has to set that up... But it wouldn't hurt if we made \DeclareUnicodeEncoding do it. (what's the plan make \.S use \accent or \ooalign or something?
@JosephWright ^
 
@DavidCarlisle 'Not my fault'?
@PauloCereda Flag with details
 
@JosephWright How do I flag a user?
 
4:52 PM
@PauloCereda Flag one of their posts ...
 
@JosephWright Even if his/her posts are ok?
 
@PauloCereda If there is an issue with the user name, yes
 
@JosephWright OK
@JosephWright: done, thanks for the help.
 
5:13 PM
Hi
45
Q: Best way to create an system of equations environment?

N3buchadnezzarI am trying to write a few systems of equations, and I want the terms to be nicely spaced as below 2x + y + 3z = 10 \\ x + y + z = 6 \\ x + 3y + 2z = 13 Now, using some very ugly code, I was able to produce the results above. \documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}...

Like I wa searching how to write a system of equations in latex
so i did that using $\textbf{systeme}$ package but out of that one of the equation is missing
why so?
 
@DavidCarlisle Yes, that was the plan. Unless our Polish friends take some action.
 
Like this
\systeme{

\partial_{t}v_{1} + \epsilon_{1} v_{1} = -k \frac{dT_{1}}{dy}

\hat{A_{1}}\frac{\partial{T_{1}}}{\partial{t}} +a_{T}v_{1}\frac{dT_{1}}{dy}} + M_{s1}\frac{dv_{1}}{dy} = -P + \frac{gE}{P_{T}}.(R+H)

\hat{B_{1}}\frac{\partial{q_{1}}{\partial{t}} +a_{q}v_{1}\frac{\partial{q_{1}}}{\partial{y}} - M_{q1}\frac{dv_{1}}{dy} = -P +\frac{gE}{P_{T}}

}
But the last equation is not displayed any help?
 
5:53 PM
@DavidCarlisle Happily enough, \.{S} is not defined in tuenc.def
 
6:24 PM
No Arch for i386?
 
7:21 PM
@UlrikeFischer @PauloCereda Translation?
 
7:35 PM
@StefanKottwitz Anything simple to overcome golatex.de/spiritus-lenis-und-akut-im-textmodus-t19340.html? @UlrikeFischer
 
8:00 PM
hello. can someone plz take a quick look at this:
got this at the document's top section:
`\setmainfont[Microtype, Numbers={OldStyle, Proportional}, Ligatures=TeX]{Calibri}
\newfontface\NoMicrotype[Numbers={OldStyle}, Ligatures=TeX]{Calibri}`
later on I've got
`\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} >{\NoMicrotype}*{1}{p{\mycustomlength}}*{1}{X}@{}} % sub-headings modification
which seems to be what is needed to get the first column in order
however,
I can't seem to be able to use \textsc{} in that column anymore
unless I change the above line to
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}*{1}{p{\mycustomlength}}*{1}{X}@{}} % sub-headings modification
but in this case the other stuff in the first column is not aligned nicely
:((
question:
why can't \textsc be applied (that is, override the "NoMicrotype"-thing) ?
 
8:17 PM
@nuttyaboutnatty it would have been better as a real example on site rather than disconnected fragment but anyway presumably you defeated fontspec's heuristics to guess matching fonts, assuming there is a small caps font you can use the fontspec declarations to specify which font to use for each shape. why do you want to turn off microtype anyway?
 
0
Q: Why is \textsc having no effect here?

nutty about natty1st case: \textsc yielding no effect, but rest of that columnn is nicely aligned: \PassOptionsToPackage{svgnames}{xcolor} \documentclass[a4paper]{article} \usepackage{gitinfo} \usepackage[none]{hyphenat} \usepackage{fontspec} \pdfprotrudechars=2 \pdfadjustspacing=2 \newfontfeature{Microty...

(really sorry about the low quality question(s), but I'm really exhausted!)
 
@nuttyaboutnatty unrelated but I'd never use tabularx for {@{}*{1}{p{\mycustomlength}}*{1}{X}@{}} it just makes tex work hard to work out the column width which you know in advance.
 
@DavidCarlisle no doubt there is A LOT to optimize and clean-up in my document...
 
@nuttyaboutnatty it can't possibly be related to tabularx:-) (just looking at the box above and the tags you used)
 
the two MWE's are identical, bar two lines
one of the two lines is commented out in the two MWE's, resp.
the two lines being
\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{} >{\NoMicrotype}*{1}{p{\mycustomlength}}*{1}{X}@{}} % sub-headings modification
%\begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{@{}*{1}{p{\mycustomlength}}*{1}{X}@{}} % sub-headings modification
 
8:28 PM
@nuttyaboutnatty do you have an old latex distribution? I'm guessing you are using a beta version of luatex? with \pdfprotrudechars defined?
 
@DavidCarlisle all my stuff is very old, yes. Has \pdfprotrudechars become obsolete in newer versions?
 
@nuttyaboutnatty it is not defined, as I say.
 
8:41 PM
@nuttyaboutnatty if you are using pdftex using a system that's ten or twenty years old is fine in most cases. if using luatex I really wouldn't use a system more than a year old it was beta software and not really robust or stable enough
 
9:13 PM
@JosephWright Any plan to revive \afterassignment in expl3?
 
@egreg tricky in general as it's not always clear where primitive assignments happen (same true in 2e of course with futurelets in optional argument parsing)
 
9:37 PM
@DavidCarlisle Yes, of course. The last post by Andrew shows at least a possible use case.
 
@egreg yes particular cases can of course be encapsulated as some expl3 function, I'll let Joseph answer your original ping as I'm unsure what functions we have these days;-)
 
@DavidCarlisle The old trick of adding something at the beginning of a box; the code in the question is a stub, the actual code should be more complex.
 
@StefanKottwitz @PauloCereda got something from me with a portuguese text, but it is up to him to show it or not.
 
@egreg At present 'no', or at least it's the usual 'we need use cases and clarity on whether these should be covered by 'exposed' primitives'
 
@JosephWright something to stop loopspace using :D commands :-)
@JosephWright @egreg any guesses on chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/61264/… (as I haven't got the test file yet)
 
9:49 PM
@DavidCarlisle We've had a few issues with the box change, largely as the older version allowed \hbox_set:Nn \l_some_box \c_group_begin_token, _i.e. could be treated as the primitive
 
@JosephWright we had exactly same problem when 2e changed \sbox and \parbox to take an argument so you couldn't use \bgroup any more. some things never change:-)
 
@DavidCarlisle Sure
 
yo'
@DavidCarlisle how do you collwct tablw cells then?!
 
@DavidCarlisle Without log-file it is difficult to say. It isn't clear which texsystem is used and how up-to-date (or not) it is. My first guess would be wrong size info.
 
10:07 PM
@DavidCarlisle No guess
 
@egreg turns out it's not emacs so I know nothing
@yo' use the setbox primitive of course:-)
 
10:35 PM
@JosephWright That's almost Andrew's case
 

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