TeX, LaTeX and Friends - 2021-11-27

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12:44 AM

@yo' -- It's starting to snow here. Very light, but visible. According to the map, it should stay to the north and east of the city, but it's likely to get cold and breezy for you. Wrap up warm -- those tall buildings intensify the wind speed.

6 hours later…

6:39 AM

I've just find out that at the Deutsche Bundesbank they use LaTeX for discussion papers: bundesbank.de/resource/blob/880226/…. Wow!

2 hours later…

8:16 AM

@PauloCereda LOL

@Plergux ooh

@DavidCarlisle oi

@PauloCereda It reminds me of that Eyjafjallajökull discussion in QI when Sean Lock (RIP :,() said "Well, actually I think the umlaut changes it and it's actually pronounced 'ych'." XD

@Plergux ooh I remember that episode! Brian Blessed was there too! :) RIP SL... :(

And that other guy whatishisname

He talked about the prawn ring

ooh Ross Noble

@PauloCereda Yup. His solution to anything is "Just say it louder and put a few curses in it." XÞ And Ross Noble is just plain weird. Which is probably why I like him. :þ

@Plergux LOL have you seen commenting snooker? :)

@Plergux youtube.com/watch?v=YP11L9jRW94

@Plergux the first comment in that video says it all: Brian Blessed is the only man who can speak in Caps Lock

8:34 AM

@PauloCereda Yeah, that's hilarious! XD

@PauloCereda XD

Also, this one: I want Brain Blessed in my GPS. "TURN LEFT!" "NOW!"

@PauloCereda XD "YOU MISSED YOUR $#"%$#"%$# TURN YOU %%/$&/&$ %$%%$#!" xd

@Plergux LOLOL

@PauloCereda Although this sounds like the guy who gave me my driving exam. Sheesh! I do not do well with "Turn! Now!" which seemed to be the whole point of that whole endeavour :(

@Plergux ooh

9:08 AM

@PauloCereda When I did my driving test I was glad that I took it in a small town (we had to go to the next town to find a roundabout XD) but when I moved to Reykjavík I was definitely not glad (hate roundabouts). XD

@Plergux :)

9:24 AM

@Plergux roundabouts are OK, just remember to always drive around them in a clockwise direction.

@DavidCarlisle roger that!

1 hour later…

10:33 AM

ctan.org/incoming

New albatross. :) And of course, easybook.

3

1 hour later…

12:02 PM

@Plergux if the new variant is Omicron, does that mean that COVID-Ο has been found-o? :)

12:16 PM

@PauloCereda You are mean! (Btw, in France, it would be boustres-chauttent)

@yo' ooh <3

May 22 '19 at 18:04, by Paulo Cereda

@PauloCereda you are not mean :)

1 hour later…

1:19 PM

I found sourceforge.net/p/currfile/tickets. Not sure if this current, but it's what is mentioned in CTAN. Only one closed ticket, and no open ticket. Someone should probably reopen it there. Unless it's not the right place for some reason. — Faheem Mitha 12 secs ago

Can anyone confirm this is the correct current location for currfile issues? Thanks.

@FaheemMitha That's what it says on the manual, so I believe it's the correct place.

@PauloCereda so trusting

@DavidCarlisle what could possibly go wrong?

Mar 26 '12 at 19:37, by David Carlisle

@Canageek moral of the story: never read the documentation, bad things happen

@DavidCarlisle ooh

ctan.org/incoming

1:32 PM

@PauloCereda one can click at every time, the result is the same ;-)

@UlrikeFischer exactly! :)

2:22 PM

@PauloCereda If that is the correct location, then the issue wasn't migrated, along with all the others. For whatever reason.

Is Martin ever in chat?

@FaheemMitha yes when he migrated all issues where lost.

2:44 PM

@Plergux if you hate roundabouts, better don't visit France. Each and every village there seems to require a roundabout.

@PauloCereda yeah!

@CarLaTeX I vaguely remember having heard a talk about a bank using latex for their bank statements. Might have been Commerzbank, but I can't really remember.

@CarLaTeX and... Windows :)

3:20 PM

@PauloCereda I use Windows, too!

@samcarter Ooohhh

@CarLaTeX oopsie :)

3:32 PM

@CarLaTeX you should take it as a compliment that they always forget that there are windows user in the chat ;-)

3:44 PM

@UlrikeFischer :D

@CarLaTeX You poor thing.

@JosephWright Unexpected output: x text -NoValue-

\documentclass{article}

\NewDocumentEnvironment{test}{O{x}}{#1}{#1}

\begin{document}

\begin{test}
text
\end{test}

\end{document}

I used Windows once, briefly. I was so glad to stop.

@FaheemMitha Windows computers stop working (if ever they did) when I'm in front of them.

@egreg The only Windows installation I ever owned (preinstall) just stopped working one day.

I tried to boot, but it wouldn't.

3:53 PM

@FaheemMitha Computers are sensitive

When referring to Windows, "working" is a relative term.

This is very interesting. The documentation (e,g. luajit.org/ext_ffi_tutorial.html) suggests that this FFI is associated with LuaJIT, but I tested your code and it works. Would this work with larger amounts of C code, or just with small snippets? Also, when I compiled the code, there was no visible C compilation, so I don't understand how this worked without C compilation. — Faheem Mitha 16 secs ago

I had no idea something like this was possible. I've used C bindings before, of course, but they normally require compilation.

@FaheemMitha you are calling the compiled code so there is no compiliation at that point, you just need to give the signature, like a C header file prototype. I had mixed success with ffi from luatex when i tried it some years back. requiring -shell-escape means it's a no-go for most things though.

@DavidCarlisle Oh, so you can't write new C code this way?

@FaheemMitha you can compile your own C library and call it from lua using ffi, but compilation of the library itself is done the usual way

@DavidCarlisle Hmm. Is that different from the "usual" way of loading it as a Lua binary module?

Or, to put it another way. how does FFI defer from "normal" Lua binary modules?

4:17 PM

@FaheemMitha not a lot: it saves writing the Lua binding code as you give it the (already existing) C header spec and it generates the lua bindings, see first para of luajit.org/ext_ffi.html

@DavidCarlisle Oh. That's not so useful, at least for Lua.

Perhaps useful for short snippets of code where one is just trying to access a C function.

4:31 PM

Printing presses with one of the best voices ever: youtube.com/watch?v=uQ88yC35NjI

4

Does anyone know \currfiledir is not printing here?

\documentclass{article}
%\usepackage[abspath]{currfile}
\usepackage{currfile}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}
\begin{document}
\typeout{currfiledir  \currfiledir}
\typeout{currfilebase \currfilebase}
\typeout{currfileext \currfileext}
\typeout{currfilename \currfilename}
\typeout{currfilepath \currfilepath}
\end{document}

@FaheemMitha because it reports the value in relation to the starting directory.

@UlrikeFischer The starting directory? Meaning the cwd of the top level directory?

4:56 PM

Hey! We've got a bot for Black Friday? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/624144/…

@Rmano Parrot would have been a better name, it only repeats what users tell it during review

5:30 PM

@samcarter :D He's such a legend. Though every time I hear him these days all I hear is "What are you doing, Pocoyo?" or "Oh, look Pocoyo, it's Pato." XD

5:51 PM

@FaheemMitha Not everyone has the necessary skills to install Linux

@CarLaTeX since it works for over a billion people, I'd be inclined to think that problems that @FaheemMitha and @egreg report with it are due to user error.

@CarLaTeX With Ubuntu, I think it's basically pop in a disk and wait. Sometimes there is a button to click.

Other distributions may require more work.

@DavidCarlisle Works, as in producing stress and viruses?

@FaheemMitha viruses are mostly a human issue, people install stuff they shouldn't: they target windows as that is overwhelmingly the most popular platform, not clear that other systems would really be better. There are some issues with windows as a development platform, but very little that 99% of end users would ever be affected by.

Oh, and I forgot about taking and using user data for their own nefarious purposes.

@DavidCarlisle Not having used Windows for a very long time, and as briefly as possible then, I may be out of date, but Windows default security practices used to be appalling. But not to worry, it gave rise to a thriving anti-virus software industry.

That's what we all love about capitalism. Suffering is just another opportunity for profit.

6:06 PM

@DavidCarlisle also prejudices due to the bad reputation of the product

@CarLaTeX I'd also be remiss not to mention that there are other free options besides the Linux-based OS's.

@FaheemMitha you should compare a 10 year pld windows with a 10 year old linux, security all round gets better, the rest of your comment is just fud really. for an end user linux suffers from same problems that unix-like systems have always had, too much fragmentation and infighting. ubuntu/fedora/mint/whatever all with different update mechanisms.

@FaheemMitha I have all my old emails on Outlook, too great the fear of losing my data

Notably, the BSDs. Also OpenSolaris, I think.

@DavidCarlisle I don't really need to spread FUD about MS. Their products do it on their own quite nicely.

@FaheemMitha I'm not a nerd, Windows is enough for what I have to do

6:09 PM

I remember using Word back in the day. Briefly. It was quite stressful.

@FaheemMitha You could use LaTeX also with Windows, no problem at all

@CarLaTeX Well, you're a TeX user. :-)

@FaheemMitha "Not having used Windows for a very long time" so you don't speak with any authority about it I assume.

@DavidCarlisle Possibly not. But I installed it a few years ago, to check out my scanners softtware. Which only works on Windows, of course.

@FaheemMitha Word isn't Windows, just as OpenOffice isn't linux.

6:11 PM

Turned out, surprisingly, that the free software I was using, was better than the scanner software, which sucked.

@DavidCarlisle True, but MS Office is a big part of MS Win.

I hear recent Windows has got even more controlling.

@FaheemMitha no. I never use Word but I have had a windows box for 20 years possibly.

@FaheemMitha again speaking based on interned gossip.

@DavidCarlisle OK.

@DavidCarlisle No, reading reviews. And blogs. Granted, they might all be wrong. The Internet is not a reliable place.

Perhaps I'm wrong, and MS is now run by angels, and MS Windows is a joy to use. Stranger things have happened.

@FaheemMitha try MacOs like egreg if you want an er, open system not controlled by large corporations....

@DavidCarlisle I think you got the wrong OS there.

@CarLaTeX Do you use a GUI for TeX Live on MS Win?

@FaheemMitha Both GUI and command promt

6:17 PM

@CarLaTeX Ah.

Really, free systems are increasingly easy to use. It's not about ease of use, IMO, it's about what programs are available on them.

@FaheemMitha Usually the GUI, it's easier. They've added also "update TeXLive" now

And proprietary software just isn't available for free systems much at all. For obvious reasons.

@CarLaTeX I see. Does the GUI have a name?

@FaheemMitha Depends. Have a look at SteamOS…

@FaheemMitha TeX Live Manager

@TeXnician I didn't say it wasn't. Some things are, of course. Particularly scientific stuff.

@CarLaTeX OK. Thank you.

6:21 PM

@FaheemMitha You're welcome

From the screenshots it looks like Tcl/Tk.

Though obviously that's just a guess.

@DavidCarlisle do you have an idea where one should put a local.conf for texlive so that it is used? Or is there is an additional step I miss? I can add directories directly into fonts.conf and that work, but the local.conf doesn't work.

@FaheemMitha sorry but this is nonsense. There are good and bad software, but it doesn't get worse only because the programmer worked in the day hours for it and get paid for it. People have the right to earn money to buy their bread.

@UlrikeFischer I think you misunderstood my comment.

In an align* environment, I can use \intertext to typeset text. It seems I must not call \par in there.

Is there any alternative at typesetting aligned equations across paragraphs?

@ComFreek it's a secret but you can use \endgraf instead of \par

6:35 PM

wonderful, thanks!

@ComFreek or this which I had half remembered although forgotten the excellent reason I implemented it.

7

A: Aligning All Equations in a Document at Equality Sign

I only considered implementing a global alignment as egreg hinted in comments that it was a bad idea. Alignment is supposed to highlight the corresponding parts of a display and that meaning is destroyed if you align everything. But... \documentclass{article} \usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath} \usep...

user image

6

@UlrikeFischer I have mine at /etc/fonts/local.conf

6:52 PM

@DavidCarlisle doesn't work on windows ;-). But I found instructions from Akira tex.stackexchange.com/a/517747/2388

@CarLaTeX -- The Math Society had all its mail on Outlook, and I lost every single link that had ever been sent to me when I retired. So, unless you have full control yourself, beware.

@UlrikeFischer but... I just said I was on Windows...

@barbarabeeton I'll export every as csv

@barbarabeeton However, the pc is my own

@CarLaTeX -- Anything I exported got garbage for the links. And the pc wasn't mine, but my desk workstation. As soon as I booted up, I connected to a Unix system because that's where the TeX system was running. Basically, the only thing useful for me on the Windows machine was the browser, all of which, it must be admitted, were pretty reasonable.

@barbarabeeton :O

7:08 PM

@CarLaTeX Doesn't Outlook export to mbox format or similar?

@DavidCarlisle your are on hidden-windows ;-)

@FaheemMitha It exports as Outlook file (pst) or comma separated (csv)

7:22 PM

@CarLaTeX -- The Math Society's Outlook installation exported to mbox. Totally inscrutable by anything else.

@barbarabeeton I don't even know what it is

@CarLaTeX -- I think that's the purpose.

@barbarabeeton :D

@CarLaTeX If you export to mbox, then you can directly import into any system that understands mbox. It's sort of a Unix default/standard, but also widely understood, I think.

mbox is just text files.

Mbox is a generic term for a family of related file formats used for holding collections of email messages. It was first implemented in Fifth Edition Unix. All messages in an mbox mailbox are concatenated and stored as plain text in a single file. Each message starts with the four characters "From" followed by a space (the so-called "From_ line") and the sender's email address. RFC 4155 defines that a UTC timestamp follows after another separating space character.A format similar to mbox is the MH Message Handling System. Other systems, such as Microsoft Exchange Server and the Cyrus IMAP server...

@FaheemMitha Thanks for the explanation

7:32 PM

Apparently maildir is a more modern alternative.

@FaheemMitha don't under estimate the power of outlook to obfuscate that

Because maildir is newer, it has less support. For example, Alpine until recently did not support it. It may now, but I don't know. (Alpine is the MUA I use.)

@UlrikeFischer is this a known microtype issue do you know? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/624171/…

8:11 PM

@DavidCarlisle I hadn't seen it yet.

@DavidCarlisle \microtypesetup{nopatch=toc} helps.

@UlrikeFischer ah

8:43 PM

I used "git rm --cached makectan.sh" to remove makectan.sh from my dev repo but keep it in the filesystem. I added makectan.sh to my .gitignore and committed and pushed. Now when I checkout the main branch and then go back to the dev branch the file makectan.sh is gone. I guess I did things in the wrong order.

i'm not sure how to fix this.

I want to expand a macro for inclusion in a filecontents block. It looks like expanding it inside filecontents isn't so simple, so I was wondering if there were any other options.

See for example

2

Q: macros/commands inside a filecontents* environment does not expand

i would like to seek your help on the following. Consider the following MWE1: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{filecontents} \begin{document} Hi \begin{filecontents*}{dummy.tex} some text and math here $A=s^2$ \end{filecontents*} \end{document} It works fine. An external file "dummy.tex" i...

macros filecontents

GITHUB IS DOWN, EVERYBODY PANICS

ooh a cookie

:)

@PauloCereda oh no.

@mickep oh no

@mickep githubstatus.com

@DavidCarlisle ^^ at least @JosephWright will stop writing pesky updates to the kernel :)

@PauloCereda at least easybook is safe

8:57 PM

@DavidCarlisle ooh :)

@PauloCereda All code is gone! omg

@mickep oh no

@FaheemMitha I was going to suggest an easy workaround but I see Phelype gave the answer at that link already

@DavidCarlisle Is what he wrote the easy workaround?

@FaheemMitha only half a dozen lines of code and that's defining a generic version defining a command that allows different characters to be used.

9:02 PM

@DavidCarlisle I'm not sure what you're referring to. His version, or your easy workaround? Or something else?

@FaheemMitha his answer this does exactly what you want admitedly it's 9 lines not half a dozen but it's not exactly complicated.

\def\filecontentsspecials#1#2#3{
  \global\let\ltxspecials\dospecials
  \gdef\dospecials{\ltxspecials
    \catcode`#1=0
    \catcode`#2=1
    \catcode`#3=2
    \global\let\dospecials\ltxspecials
  }
}

@DavidCarlisle Except that, as I commented, I've no idea what it's doing.

Is that catcode 1 to 0, 2 to 1, and 3 to 2?

@FaheemMitha in the example it is used as \filecontentsspecials|[] so | is #1 and becomes the escape character instead of \ [ is #2 and becomes group begin instead of { and ] is #3 and becomes group end, so in your filecontents you can write |fbox[foo] and it is interpreted as \fbox{foo}

@DavidCarlisle I assume \filecontentsspecials represents some catcode rearrangement itself. Presumably for the purposes of the filecontents environment.

@FaheemMitha huh? It's just a name, it is defined there in the answer, I would have called it \zzz it makes no difference what you call it.

9:12 PM

@DavidCarlisle OK. Yes, I see def\filecontentsspecials.

Still don't understand what's happening, though. I'll look at it tomorrow.

@FaheemMitha I literally just pasted it 6 comments above

@DavidCarlisle That's what I was referring to.

@FaheemMitha but that is essentially the entire answer Phelype posted

@DavidCarlisle Yes, I'm aware of that.

@FaheemMitha version without the definition and just doing th ecatcode changes inline

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand*{\somecommand}{some text and math here $A=s^2$}%
\begin{document}
Hi
{\catcode`\|=0
\begin{filecontents*}[overwrite]{dummy.tex}
|somecommand % this expands
\somecommand % this does not
\end{filecontents*}
}
\end{document}

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