quack

@PauloCereda breakfast

@DavidCarlisle oh no

@DavidCarlisle do you think we can upload the two font packages?

@UlrikeFischer sorry I was working on work all day yesterday and didn't look at all other than accept your github invite. I could just say yes or do you want me to check something.

@DavidCarlisle I'm unsure if the readme in psnfss needs a change (or perhaps even a rename) and if something else is missing that ctan could complain about.

@UlrikeFischer I'll try to look in a bi

Hi there guys

(")>/ hi

I've got a small tikz question

I defined the "arrowat" decoration style to enable me to put arrows on my lines at arbitrary points (example: \draw[arrowat=0.2] will give an arrow at 20% of the line), and would like to maybe use this to draw orientations on knots, using the knots tikzlibrary. However, it seems that this confuses tikz, since e.g. on my attempt at the trefoil knot, several arrows are drawn (maybe this is because of the crossings?)

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

@Danu No, I'm sorry. But I would post a question with an MWE on the main site, it's spring and hibernation is ending for a lot of TikZlings... ☺

ooh winter, spring, summer and fall

all you have to do is call

OH NO JAMES TAYLOR

/quacks in despair

@PauloCereda What happened?

@AlexG sudden James Taylor reference :)

@PauloCereda The musician? Forgive my ignorance..

@AlexG Yes, that's one song I know from him. :)

@PauloCereda and now, I'm somewhat glad I don't know the song.

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz ooh :)

@PauloCereda well, instead I have an earwig of the tetris melody.

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz ooh

@JosephWright -- I'd like to nominate the Often referenced questions list for a "faq" tag. (Only moderators can use this tag; no ordinary mortals.

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz check Signal. :)

@barbarabeeton and ducks

@PauloCereda gosh, you're evil!

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz <3

@PauloCereda -- Pedant says that should be "or ducks". (Or rabbits.)

@barbarabeeton ooh

@Rmano Fair enough!

@barbarabeeton ^^ :)

@Rmano I have posted my earlier chat-question on the main site now: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/534491/…

@Rithaniel sounds as if your system is in part not up-to-date. Are you using miktex?

Texmaker

@UlrikeFischer Perhaps I should ping people as well. That seems to be the norm on here

@Rithaniel texmaker is an editor not a tex system. And you should ping if you answer to someone.

@UlrikeFischer Well, in that case I am not sure what my tex system is. How might I find that information? (As might be readily apparent, I am very inexperienced with LaTeX in general.)

@Rithaniel look in the log-file. It should tell you in the first line.

@UlrikeFischer MiKTeX 2.9.7000 64-bit

@PauloCereda-- ^^^^^

@Rithaniel Then run in the miktex console the update manager in user and admin mode.

@Danu Nice. Let's see if somebody is able to answer... I think that the package author is around here sometime.

@UlrikeFischer Thank you for the help. That appears to have solved my problem. :]

@barbarabeeton great for social distancing!

@barbarabeeton but, how does she go to the toilet? Or in a house? Did she change into that dress outside?

@barbarabeeton So many questions remain...

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz -- That was precisely the idea. The construction of hoopskirts is interesting. (Shorter ones were in vogue when I was in high school, so I got a firsthand look into the details.) To get through doors, one can lift one side and go through with the hoops vertical. That could be embarrassing, so there was also a pair of individual "legs" joined only at the top, and usually with lace at the ankles. And lots of petticoats.

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz -- More complicated is, how does one get into an automobile, much less drive, wearing one? (The idea was, in some part, to be mysterious.)

@barbarabeeton I remember the hassle when I got married :)

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz -- Oh, did you wear a hoopskirt? <snide grin>

@barbarabeeton I remember vaguely that it was my wife...

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz -- Ah. The biggest car problem my husband and I had was that some miscreant had filled the hubcaps with pebbles. (Remember hubcaps?)

@barbarabeeton Of course I remember hubcaps, they are still in use on many cars... (at least older ones in Germany, or if you go for the budget variant)

@barbarabeeton I remember one of my teachers when I was in 4th grade asking us to fix hers because she didn't manage.

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz -- I never had a problem actually changing a tire, but golly, it was a real hassle to pry the hubcaps loose. (Saab 96, first 2-cycle including a "special", then V4, Hubcaps disappeared with the 99, various 900s, and at present 9-3. They've all been named after dragons. Sadly, no more, but they do hang on for a long time. I hate General Motors.)

@barbarabeeton who doesn't? :)

@barbarabeeton ooh

@Skillmonlikestopanswers.xyz ooh GM

@JosephWright -- Please take a look at tex.stackexchange.com/review/suggested-edits/188492 ; this person has made at least a dozen cosmetic edits today, and it clutters up the active list. Maybe a gentle admonition to not make so many at once is in order.

@barbarabeeton You would'nt publish "i'd would like to", me too, so I approved that post with 5 cosmetic edits such as marking inline code and inserting missing spaces. I can live with an "active active list" for improvements. (I'd prefer OPs would take more care at the beginning, though)

The actual issue is the re-ordering of the "active questions" list (I don't consider the corrections being the fault)

SE could simply do without bumping in case of minor edits (such as small difference in characters). On TeXwelt.de, edits do not bump a question if the edit reason contains any word of (small, tiny, fixed, typo) or similar (in German), so it's in control of the editing user.

perhaps "activity" on the front page brings clicks or a better google value ;-) who knows the deeper reason

@StefanKottwitz -- I raised a little sand on meta.se earlier today. There were already several similar questions, all labeled "feature request", and all basically ignored. My question got shot down, but most of the people who commented were reasonable, and I expressed my appreciation, at least partly to try to convince them I wasn't a crank.

@StefanKottwitz -- I think the reason is often a newbie trying to gain rep and badges.

When I spot one in the edit review queue, if it improves comprehension, or is a real correction, I'll approve it if I know enough about the subject. If it's purely cosmetic, I'll just skip it and leave the problem for someone else.

@StefanKottwitz -- if you agree with this suggestion, please consider doing it. If you don't agree, I'm curious why.

@barbarabeeton again that's a site feature, promoting and rewarding certain behavior by rep&badges

fix the "feature" and not the people

I consider mistakes in error and spelling and missing markdown as more than cosmetic. Though I agree with you, if I would consider it as just cosmetic I may skip. I don't do minor edits myself but when it's already done and in the review queue, I don't have a reason to refuse anything that's an improvement.

Somebody may ask me "hey you, why did you refuse the correction of i'd would like to to I'd like to or I would like to?"

Or "hey mod, why do you refuse adding inline code markup to inline code?"

Otherwise it's training people to avoid small corrections and to accept lower quality and to live with negative feedback for corrections just because the site is programmed to push the smallest edit on the top of activities.

@StefanKottwitz -- No, I don't reject, I just skip. Actually, I do make changes myself to things like misspelled commands in question headings, un-formatted code blocks, inappropriate tags, and usually add a comment saying what I did and why. Those may be considered cosmetic, but they also hamper proper comprehension. I don't consider adding an apostrophe to "dont" as being required for proper understanding but that may be just a consequence of the fact that English is my native language.

we better put pressure on feature requests (bug fixes) than on people I think

@barbarabeeton I skip too, if something is unclear to me. Then it's up to the next one anyway. ;-)

@StefanKottwitz -- Re "feature requests", perhaps some pressure to at least respond with "declined" and an answer from someone in authority to state briefly why would be a reasonable approach. Leaving these hanging really doesn't look good.

@barbarabeeton I see your point, I'm just fine with letting people do improvements even if they just small if it's not actual harm but cosmetic annoying by the activity feature

@StefanKottwitz -- What about my request to tag the "Often referenced questions" as a "faq"? If more people knew about this, it might help them finding existing answers. I thibk the list is rather well curated, and not just because I poke at it so often.

@barbarabeeton Sounds good, since it's closely related

@StefanKottwitz -- The "faq" tag can be applied only by moderators.