Hi. I'm trying to find an answer to my question, but my initial efforts don't seem to be too successful. I hope someone here can give me a quick answer.

So I have a plot in pdf format. I'm using the latex package pdfpages to embed the pdf into my latex file. But the latex output renders a huge plot that covers the whole page, and even spills out.

So my question is: how can I re-size the plot in latex using pdfpages?

Hm .. I found a way out (using graphicx package). But, if anyone has a way they want to share, please let me know.

Thanks!

@egreg @DavidCarlisle You could call in the IERS.

@CarLaTeX the reason to document things is not so users know in advance and can avoid problems, it's so when they fall into a hole the software author can say "I told you about that: It's not my fault"

@DavidCarlisle Ah, now it's clear :)

@DavidCarlisle Can you explain why the OPs idea does not work in this question: tex.stackexchange.com/q/417921/3929, my workaround seems to work, but it would be nice (for completeness) to also know why the original did not work.

@daleif tabularx has to have some special handling so that the \tabularx form works, ltabularx (not my favourite package:-) doesn't do that so it doesn't work. In a way that (and using environ, which is a packaged form of the same special environment handling as tabularx and amsmath use) negates much of the design of longtable which (although it is less of an issue these days) is designed completely around the idea that you can not fit the whole table in memory

I can’t go to a restaurant and order food because I keep looking at the fonts on the menu. (en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth) Maybe there was pineapple pizza on the menu :):):)

@DavidCarlisle thanks

@daleif was not a very helpful answer I fear:-)

@DavidCarlisle better than nothing.

^^^ pretest started

Installing to: /usr/local/texlive/2018
Installing [0001/3563, time/total: ??:??/??:??]: 12many [376k]
Installing [0002/3563, time/total: 00:00/00:00]: 2up [66k]
Installing [0003/3563, time/total: 00:01/01:36:31]: Asana-Math [482k]
Installing [0004/3563, time/total: 00:01/46:06]: ESIEEcv [137k]
Installing [0005/3563, time/total: 00:01/40:09]: FAQ-en [4971k]
Installing [0006/3563, time/total: 00:04/28:12]: GS1 [1125k]

@UlrikeFischer, @egreg Installing here too

@UlrikeFischer I guess you want l3draw updating then :)

@JosephWright Currently I'm trying to handle attributes in luatex and trying not to get drawn away from it by ducks ;-)

@UlrikeFischer Oooh: what are you using them for? (I see Heiko mentioned the idea of using them for hyperlinks ...)

@JosephWright Trying to tag a pdf or more precisely a paragraph that is broken over two pages -- somehow one has to inject a EMC at the break point and a BMC at the start of the new page.

@UlrikeFischer Ah, right

@UlrikeFischer I guess another thing for the 'to do' list: we need this kind of code

@JosephWright I'm trying to assemble the needed things so that later one people with better lua knowlegdes can rewrite them ;-)

@UlrikeFischer Er ...

@UlrikeFischer Sounds good

@UlrikeFischer I will do an l3draw release today: I've got things for l3build to sort for TL'18 proper (we are making it into a 'real' script so you'll be able to do l3build ctan and have everything work)

@PauloCereda Speaking of l3build and CTAN, any idea on when that might get looked at?

tl2018pretest > xetex --version
XeTeX 3.14159265-2.6-0.99999 (TeX Live 2018)
kpathsea version 6.3.0

A long standing bug of XeTeX on Mac OS X has been fixed!

@egreg What's that?

@JosephWright tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2018-January/040988.html

@JosephWright working on it in the bus. :)

@PauloCereda Cool

Back to the future:

TeX Live 2018 is frozen forever and will no
longer be updated.  This happens in preparation for a new release.

@TeXnician Without Delorean Car? ;-)

@ChristianHupfer Probably built-in. As apt would say: This command has super cow power :)

@TeXnician Super Cow ....

@DavidCarlisle I'm slowly getting through memoirs embedded packages, trying to figure out which parts of the embedded code was changed. I'm looking at array at the moment. Question: why is \endarray defined twice with slightly different codes. This is also in the current array version

@daleif because the current array.sty is a "quick merger" of Frank's array.sty and my newarray.sty and some places where I patched Frank's code still show through and the package makes a definition then modifies it later in the same file.

@DavidCarlisle ahh, that explains some of Peters comments about cleaning up. For reference \@tabarray is defined twice as well.

@daleif Frank didn't know me at all at the time, it's structured so he can unjoin the packages again if he changed his mind:-)

@daleif we really ought to at least comment out the old parts

@DavidCarlisle well, the memoir sources does something similar sometimes, sometimes a bit messy when you want to hook into something.

\@classv duplicate as well

A quick question for the TeXperts: I'm looking for a command that conditionally inserts content when run in display math mode but not inline math mode, e.g. \DisplayModeOnly{\;}. Any thoughts?

@COTO \newcommand{\DisplayModeOnly}[1]{\mathchoice{#1}{}{}{}}

Ah. Many thanks. Is there a big manual for how all this works? All I can find online is the documentation for 1,000 different packages, but no "central repository" with a nice tree structure, index, etc. Do you mind if I ask where you would go to learn TeX (from the perspective of somebody who might want to write their own package, etc.) if your only exposure to LaTeX had been in using it for run-of-the-mill typesetting of documents?

@COTO \mathchoice is a TeX primitive; look for texdoc texbytopic

@COTO This is indeed an advanced topic.

Indeed. I'm more looking for a TeX/LaTeX API with a nice table of contents, broad searchable index of commands, etc. Some place where I could go and click on, e.g. "Section 7.2.1 - commands for positioning elements within boxes", or "Section 2.1 - relevant lengths in TeX layout model".

A repository where commands are classified, categorized, and sorted.

Across as many packages as possible, ideally.

I don't know if such a thing exists.

Given the number of packages and package authors, such a thing is impossible.

@COTO it doesn't, and if it did, it wouldn't describe \mathchoice as that is a tex primitive so not defined in a package

Also note that \DisplayModeOnly might not always do what you want \[ \frac{\DisplayModeOnly{H}}{3} \] being one example.

sigh OK. How did you learn about \mathchoice. In a book about TeX?

@COTO the TeXBook, oddly enough:-)

Look inside enough macro code and then try it out.

\mathchoice is described in TeX By Topic, whichy is available for free, the TeXBook is not.

@COTO I do not think such an index exists for any programming language does it? You can't easily find a documented list of any function written by anyone in C for example?

Is LaTeX just TeX with macros added? I've never used TeX directly. Always LaTeX? Would learning about primitives in TeX be the same as learning LaTeX?

@COTO LaTeX is a program written in TeX

@DavidCarlisle: You can for many of the core components. For example, "Numerical Recipes in C". Also, a basic C guide shows you how to make Turing-complete programs. TeX seems to rely on 1,001 obscure macros in equally many packages, and it's nowhere near as (shall we say) "structured" as C in terms of having very, very few primitives.

I was hoping there might be a "LaTeX Bible" wiki by now with a huge index of commands as described, but as you say, the language is perhaps too broad.

I'm going to read "TeX by Topic". It seems close to what I'm looking for. Thanks.

@COTO numerical recipes describes some simple programs that you could write it doesn't attempt to (and doesn't) provide any documentation for actual c programs that you may find in the wild. Numerical recipes isn't going to help you read the C source of the linux kernel or whatever. I am not sure what your reference to turing completeness is intended to imply here but tex is also turing complete so a basic tex guide would show how to write turing complete tex programs as well.

@DavidCarlisle: That's what I'm looking for. A way to write Turing complete programs in TeX/LaTeX. The "TeX by Topic" book is looking very promising.

Got to go. Thanks again for your assistance.

I use \,\textendash\, as the range delimiter, but of course that doesn't allow linebreaks and produces ugly things like this ^. Is there a non -non-breaking alternative to \, (maybe \hspace{0.16667em}?) or any better way I could do this?

@dessert \hspace would allow a break, but if you don't want to allow linebreaks before or after the --- what do you want to happen?

@DavidCarlisle I want it to break, that's much better then having overlong lines like this.

@dessert did you not mean to add "non" here then? "Is there a non -non-breaking alternative"

Er… I want a breaking alternative I suppose.

@dessert you could control how (un) desirable it is there with for instance \nolinebreak[3]\,\textendash\nolinebreak[1]\, [0] would just allow it without encouraging or discouraging [4] prevents a break , 1,2,3 are somewhere in between

@DavidCarlisle wow, thanks!

hrm, biblatex doesn't seem to like \nolinebreak:

! Argument of \@no@lnbk has an extra }.

@dessert looks like a fragile command in a moving argument:-) stick \protect in front of it

@DavidCarlisle 👍

whee! another palindrome! (ignore the comma, please.)

@DavidCarlisle so we can say it's supertabular authors' fault! :):):)

@barbarabeeton Yay! Congrats!

@barbarabeeton 65536 would be nice as well

@egreg -- at the rate i'm going, that will be another six months or so.

@barbarabeeton We have hope!

@DavidCarlisle severe case of rtfm there – texdoc biblatex section 4.7.4 Adding Whitespace

Do you know which fonts are used in Lang's Algebra?

@JohnDorian I think it's Springer's in house version of Times

@egreg for both text and math?

@JohnDorian Yes.

@egreg thank you

If I have a question about some kind of LaTeX code review/looking for suggestions, should I ask at the main site (tag code-review) or on the respective SX site?

@TeXnician If there are specific problems you want to solve, maybe this can go here, otherwise I think CodeRevew.SE is better.

@egreg Thanks. I've posted my question there.

@TeXnician Interesting code; but it can be made much more efficient.

@egreg ^^

@DavidCarlisle Did you add a Vigenere square?

@egreg your comments here are getting escape prepended quite often (but not always) is it a key shortcut you use?

@DavidCarlisle No.

@egreg seems odd, another occasion:

@DavidCarlisle Does this have it?

@egreg no (does your browser not show the missing glyph marker for escape?)

@DavidCarlisle I copied that one and converted it at the r12a site: there is a strange \u001B in front of it.

I can't see it, anyway.

@egreg I'll just go back to not reading your comments, then I won't be distracted by escape characters

@DavidCarlisle So I can be even more rude. ;-)

has anyone seen egreg recently?

@DavidCarlisle last time he transmogrified into David Carlisle and started adding random % sings

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018)

@DavidCarlisle chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/43212996#43212996

@egreg sure, some of us have a day job (but I'm not replying to you as I'm not reading your comments)

escape again ^^

Hi mr. @marmot!

@PauloCereda Hi. I escaped from the discussion between David and egreg ;-)

@marmot ooh I heard they use long macros to fight

@PauloCereda Yes, like \ifyoudontbehaveIputpineappleonyourpizza ...

@marmot ooh

@marmot If we star that, it won't be long any more...

@marmot but unlike you and @egreg I have had ham and pineapple pizza and it is fine, ham and pineapple go well together in lots of contexts not just pizza

@DavidCarlisle Nutella pizza is good.

@PauloCereda that is just silly

@DavidCarlisle oh

@PauloCereda ducks will eat any old rubbish that you throw in the pond, it's not good for them though

@DavidCarlisle not even bread?

@DavidCarlisle There's a broader generalization at work here: Italians aren't big on fruit with meat, other than prosciutto and melon.

@PauloCereda popsci.com/feeding-ducks-bread

@AlanMunn oh no

> Just as with many other animals, chocolate is a fatal. Chocolate poisoning first affects a bird's digestive system, causing vomiting and diarrhea. As the condition progresses, the bird's central nervous system is affected, first causing seizures and eventually death.

BOO

What science has ever done for us

@PauloCereda especially bread

@PauloCereda There goes the nutella idea.

@DavidCarlisle oh no

@AlanMunn well, I'd say the Italian would not consider Nutella as a chocolate, then I am saved. :)

@DavidCarlisle: do you have Marmite pizza?

@PauloCereda no

@DavidCarlisle oh

@PauloCereda But apparently the Kiwis do: cookingchanneltv.com/devour/2014/03/marmite-pizza

@AlanMunn oooh

@AlanMunn They feed sheep with it.

@egreg Well, Pizza Hut isn't pizza no matter what.

@AlanMunn I once saw a juice bottle with the following label: Juice. Contains juice.

@PauloCereda Tarski juice.

@AlanMunn oh my

@AlanMunn touché. :)

@AlanMunn Why not? You could use \long\def ....

@marmot I was alluding to \newcommand* :)

@egreg: I think Karl included you in the wrong list. :)

@egreg: tug.org/tug2018/program.html