TeX, LaTeX and Friends

Paulo Cereda

00:48

@egreg Buonanotte! :)

Nasser

02:44

I have a great idea for a latex book. I am just not good enough to do it. In all the latex books I have, none of them do this in any good way. Here is the idea: The book will be just full of small complete examples how to setup different things. On the left side will be the result, and on the right side will be the code. That is all.

Many times I want to do something, and I spend so much time looking for example like it. If there was such a book, or web site, that will be help. It will be like a handbook, or catalog type book. But it has to be extensive and covers many different variations of the same thing to make it complete.

2 another items that htlatex does not support for HTML: minpages and multicol :(

user1460166

03:36

hi, anyone here?

Stephan Lehmke

just us mice

user1460166

thanks

Could you please help me do something as it is very urgent

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 Does it have to do with music typesetting?

user1460166

I want to add header to all my pages in the document but its not working

0

Q: Header in Latex

I'm trying the below script to make a header but its not working and this is very urgent if anyone could help me. \documentclass[conference,letterpaper]{IEEEtran} \usepackage{fancyhdr} \setlength{\paperwidth}{215.9mm} \setlength{\hoffset}{-9.7mm} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0mm} \setlength{\textw...

header-footer

I've tried this script but nothing appears

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 Have you seen the answer by @gonzalomedina?

user1460166

03:47

yes

but not working

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 Works for me also. Maybe there's something wrong with your setup? Are you getting error messages?

user1460166

nope

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 I'm afraid as long as nobody can reproduce your problem, there's no means to help.

user1460166

can you try his solution with my script in my question, as this is a conference template I can't just remove it

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 Gonzalo is using the conference template.

@user1460166 Setting headheight to 0 is absurd if you want a header.

user1460166

03:59

but all the other settings he removed was in the conference template I downloaded

Stephan Lehmke

@user1460166 Sorry, but that's just not the way it works. Gonzalo gave you a working example to start from. Please find out what exactly needs to be added (by systematic experimentation) to make it stop working. Then you have the basis for asking a precise question.

@user1460166 Maybe the conference template doesn't allow you to use a header.

nutty about natty

05:59

@DavidCarlisle David, where should I put this chunk of code? Into the preamble, or right before the "offending" chapter begins?

Nasser

any one here uses latexml? I have simple question on it.

It seems to work well, except when I use some packages it does not know about. Like it does not handle verbatim, multicol so far.

I installed it on Linux latexml (LaTeXML version 0.7.0)

michal.h21

06:40

@Nasser this is not surprising - CSS columns didn't exist when tex4ht was created. And of course, it is really impossible for tex4ht to support all of thousands LaTeX packages, commands and environments. Especially in the case when they produce something what doesn't have equivalent in HTML. But it should be possible to configure both multicol and minipage to your needs with \ConfigureEnv and some CSS code.

Nasser

06:58

@michal.h21 sure. I understand. It is struggle though to understand some simple things about htlatex. Like why this code

\begin{tabularx}{\linewidth}{p{1in}|p{7in}}
dfkjadfkljds;afkjdsf;kldjsf;lkdsjafkldsjflk;dsjfadsl;fj
dfkjadfkljds;afkjdsf;kldjsf;lkdsjafkldsjflk;dsjfadsl;fj
dfkjadfkljds;afkjdsf;kldjsf;lkdsjafkldsjflk;dsjfadsl;fj
&
dkfjdasklfjsd
\end{tabularx}

does not make a table of first col smaller than the second. it is always the first column is very wide.

it is driving me crazy :)

The problem really is that the mapping from Latex to HTML seems to be always somewhat distorted. What I see in PDF does not always match what is on the HTML page. Like the above simple example.

I know it is very hard problem, this latex to HTML conversion. It is like magic for me.

michal.h21

@Nasser yeah, I was looking at that issue and it is hidden really deep, I think tables handling is one of most mysterious thing with tex4ht. probably easiest is to fix such issues with some CSS

@Nasser yeah, because sometimes what seems simple is in reality pretty complex.

Nasser

@michal.h21 I am now just playing with latexml to try it out. It seems OK so far, but many packages are missing. But I think this is matter of just finding missing ones and installing them from here trac.mathweb.org/LaTeXML/browser/trunk/lib/LaTeXML/Package

I was impressed with dlmf.nist.gov it was generated by latexml.

but I just started playing with it few hrs ago. Wanted to try it out.

Nasser

07:22

@michal.h21 You might like to see this book. It mentions tex4ht and latexml and the whole issue of converting latex to other formats. link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11786-010-0024-7.pdf

David Carlisle

@nuttyaboutnatty nowhere I was just showing it,that is the standard definition from book class.

@Nasser I suspect it simply ignores the widths (which is often the right thing to do) as the page size is typically completely different the model was converting existing latex files, not as you are doing writing a file for dual use from the start, in the latter case it is much easier to come up with sensible interpretations for col widths

@Nasser that is being used to convert the arxiv archive with quite high (but not 100%) success rates

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle, I found also latexml ignores the widths given. I run the same example on latexml with similar result as tex4ht

I am learning latexml now. But very HARD to find any simple instructions to follow ! Like how to install latexml packages from trac.mathweb.org/LaTeXML/browser/trunk/lib/LaTeXML/Package it is amazing that no one explains things in simple terms any more. Or may be I am just getting old. I do not know ;)

David Carlisle

@Nasser as I say it's probably a deliberate decision in both cases (although both could be configured differently) almost everything about the table models of tex and css/html are different so it is hard to come up with a natural mapping from one to the other.

@Nasser latexml hasn't so much end user doc, it was originally an internal project to produce the DLMF at NIST, but it's an impressive system.

Nasser

yes, it is. But no one seems to use it. I find ONE post on it at stackoverflow. ONE post only :)

I think I am the third person outside NIST who is using it now

There is a mailing list here trac.mathweb.org/LaTeXML that I just joined. waiting approval. Maybe I can ask some basic questions on it.

If latexml does not work, I'll give up, and will go back to using Microsoft word :)

interesting free PDF paper here philpapers.org/rec/KOHTTA called "transforming the arxiv to XML".

from the above "Unfortunately the LATEX language mixes content and
presentation" I think there is truth to that !

michal.h21

07:39

@Nasser yeah, I don't think configuring LaTeXML would be easier than TeX4ht. And with tex4ht, at least content, if not documenrt structure is saved

Nasser

@michal.h21 on one file I have, latexml needs these:

Conversion complete: 2 warnings; 4 errors; 4 missing files[lmodern, verbatim, fontenc, fancyvrb]

so I need to find these and installing them, somehere, somehow.

michal.h21

@Nasser it depend's on style of everyone, you can use pretty structured macros, or some direct formatting instructions.

Nasser

but it is FAST actually. Faster than latex2html and htlatex. I think this is becuase it does not generate .png files. it uses mathml.

michal.h21

@Nasser tex4ht is slow because it runs latex 3 times. but with make4ht, you can create make file to run it only once. and you can use mathml with tex4ht too

Dominic Michaelis

Hello I want to try the following: when i label something which got an explicit name beside the standard name like for examlpe in \begin{Theorem}[Fundamental Theorem of Algebra] ... I want that when i use a \ref (or a \cref) that the link looks like Fundamental Theorem of Algebra (Theorem x.y)

David Carlisle

08:13

@Nasser well not exactly, Michael has had a succession of students working on it and extending it as they worked through the arxiv archive of latex documents, but I don't think Michael or Bruce (who wrote all of it originally) are going out of their way to advertise it. Users can be such a pain:-)

@Nasser you don't need html customisation for most packages (or just make an empty one to silence the warning) You don't need to use the same fonts in pdf and html, so you don't need lmodern, you definitely don't want to move the crazy world of tex font encodings over to html so you don't want fontenc and if you write verbatim.4ht or fancyvrb.4ht into google the first hit in each case is a file you just need to copy.

@DominicMichaelis nameref i think will do that

Dominic Michaelis

09:29

not with the default settings :D

Paulo Cereda

@egreg: happy St. Anthony's day! :)

egreg

@PauloCereda The weather is very good! Last year's procession had to be cancelled for heavy rain. :) More than 100000 visitors are expected, according to the newspaper.

Paulo Cereda

@egreg Yay! :)

mozartstraße

10:42

David Carlisle

10:53

@mozartstraße new name, one of your old faces?

mozartstraße

11:13

@DavidCarlisle :-)

ach

Is there a good discussion of the benefits (and drawbacks !) of extra leading (double spacing, one-half spacing) that anyone is aware of ? CMS, some website ? I would like to convince my supervisor of the evils of double spacing, and this would aid in that purpose

mozartstraße

I wonder how you get money to live while you are always online here almost everyday?

David Carlisle

@mozartstraße don't confuse an open firefox tab with actually being here:-)

mozartstraße

11:47

@DavidCarlisle :-)

David Carlisle

12:34

!!/battle

@PauloCereda hmph Psmith never there when you need him.

Paulo Cereda

@DavidCarlisle Oh wait. :)

!!/battle

@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: The current score is egreg 215 vs. 220 David. So far, David is winning.

ooh close call! :)

David Carlisle

12:51

@PauloCereda yes good job egreg is out partying, that's why I wanted Psmith before he got back:-)

egreg

!!/battle

Paulo Cereda

@egreg Psmith, the TeX bot: The current score is egreg 215 vs. 230 David. So far, David is winning.

egreg

It should be 230, now. ;-)

David Carlisle

oops he got back:(

egreg

@DavidCarlisle Isn't this sportmanship?

David Carlisle

12:52

@egreg it's not cricket

ach

Tex.SE is serious business

egreg

@ach Definitely.

ach

Oh, btw @egreg you don't happen to have a good reference I can use to explain the evils of double-spaced text ? I am having a fun time trying to convince my supervisor.

egreg

@ach What about showing him/her two pages? One single-spaced, the other one double-spaced.

David Carlisle

@ach is this for a paper or for your actual thesis (in the latter case there are often rules to be followed and what it looks like isn't highest priority)

ach

13:00

the problem is, he thinks it looks better double spaced

it is, indeed, a thesis

egreg

@ach Show him Botticelli's "La primavera" and some rubbish painting.

ach

@egreg he thinks doublespacing looks clearer / better. In addition, the argument that 'well double spacing just looks like a thesis* has been made

which I dislike

@DavidCarlisle it's at Oxford, in fact

David Carlisle

@ach where's that?

egreg

@ach Well, cars used to have high wooden wheels so they looked like cars.

David Carlisle

@ach hmm you might need to check they almost certainly do have rules. A single spaced thesis is probably a bigger crime than walking on the grass, and prevent ever getting a degree....

ach

13:03

@DavidCarlisle there are pages of rules, and then, at the very end, the clause "or, in the manner of a well presented book"

David Carlisle

@ach when in doubt, always draft a get-out clause:-)

ach

@egreg do you know the musical fiddler on the roof

there's a song, "Tradition"

that describes the situation quite well

at Oxford :)

egreg

@ach Prepare one version for your supervisor and one for you to enjoy.

ach

@DavidCarlisle My strategy will probably be to ask if I can submit a properly typeset version after corrections - if the examiners want a 1.5 or 2x copy so be it

@egreg probably the best solution, yes

but it makes quite a difference for page breaks, float positioning, etc. I guess that's just life !

egreg

13:16

@ach I wouldn't bother with page breaks and float positioning for the doublespaced version: if they want junk, so be it. ;-)

ach

:)

egreg

@ach I wasn't referring to the contents of the thesis, of course. ;-)

ach

Well, that just seems I am being awkward on purpose :).

egreg

@ach During my LaTeX course I always tell the students that their thesis should be as readable as possible: somebody has to read it! The better we set our text, the easier will be for the examiners to do their duty.

ach

@egreg I agree, but when I pointed out that books are not double spaced it was put to me that this was to save printing cost (!!) and that one typically would not read a whole book in one go as one would a thesis.

what can I say

some people have their own opinions

David Carlisle

13:22

@ach when I started my phd my supervisor told me where to find the university rules but remarked that his own thesis had been around 8 pages long, if you prove a good enough result they couldn't fail you no matter what....

egreg

@ach And some opinion is simply wrong.

egreg

13:40

!!/battle

Paulo Cereda

@egreg Psmith, the TeX bot: The current score is egreg 230 vs. 245 David. So far, David is winning.

!!/fortune

@PauloCereda Psmith, the TeX bot: Here is your fortune: Watch out for low flying ducks.

Marco Daniel

14:24

@PauloCereda: Updated the rule makeindex

Paulo Cereda

@MarcoDaniel Oh no! :) What happened?

Marco Daniel

@PauloCereda makeindex rule has the fixed extension idx.

A new package: github.com/marcodaniel/lengthconvert

:-)

egreg

14:44

@MarcoDaniel Why using clists? I'd use sequences. IMO the "precision" should use an integer variable, which can better catch input errors.

@MarcoDaniel Did you think to a property list for associating long names to symbols?

Marco Daniel

@egreg clist: I think I am the only one who uses this list ;-) -- To precision: Good point ;-) -- I will change it.

I need this macro for another package

@egreg Do you mean instead of using a meta key?

egreg

@MarcoDaniel In any case, shouldn't the lists of units be global rather than local? Or perhaps constant.

@MarcoDaniel There's a lot of code duplication, I think.

Marco Daniel

@egreg Indeed. E.g. the calculation step.

@egreg precision: fixed; duplicated: reduced; local list: fixed

Jake

@MarcoDaniel Nice! Feature request: Feet, miles, metres, kilometres, furlongs (but I guess that's not the use-case you had in mind?)

Marco Daniel

@Jake My first request ;-)

tohecz

14:58

Hello everybody!

Nasser

15:25

I see a tag for XML and tag ofcourse for Latex. Does this mean one is allowed to ask questions on LateXML in here?

cgnieder

15:36

@ach True, nobody would ever do that. Books are not meant to be read after all! Or wait: what if they are? ... People have strange opinions

Paulo Cereda

@DavidCarlisle: I'm trying to find out if EA has a cricket game for Xbox. :)

David Carlisle

!!/cricket

Paulo Cereda

Psmith, the TeX bot, in fixed font mode: Let's take a look at the last cricket results:

- Leicestershire 142/3 * v Northamptonshire 567/7
- Middlesex 27/1 &  175/10 * v Yorkshire 390/10
- Durham 267/10 &  18 * v Warwickshire 209/10
- Essex 273/10  v Lancashire 185/5 *
- Hampshire v Gloucestershire 242/5 *
- Kent 8 * v Glamorgan 378/10
- Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire 306/6 *
- Sussex 201/4 * v Surrey
- England 256/7 * v Sri Lanka

Our cricket expert David might explain these results later on.

@DavidCarlisle Give M an Xbox. :)

Nasser

if one installs TexLive 2013, does it also come with TexLive-science? (for things like algorithms package) or does one have to install that manually afterwords? Worried about version problems.

Torbjørn T.

@Nasser You can choose what to install, the default is everything in TeX Live, I believe.

Nasser

15:47

I just installed texlive-science using sudo apt-get install texlive-science and found problem. I am using debian TexLive package as well.

@TorbjørnT. but if default is everything, why it was missing then on my Linux mint box? I did install tex-live debian package before? It was missing the algorithms2e.sty and googling around found I need to do more installations...

David Carlisle

@Nasser The usual recommendation is to install a vanilla texlive from tug rather than the repackaged linux distribution versions (only problem is persuading your OS package manager that you do have tex in that case)

Nasser

I should make a new VM now, install new Linux, and install TexLive from TUG and not touch debian texlive stuff again.

Torbjørn T.

@Nasser I was referring to the TUG version, not the one in Debian/Ubuntu repos.

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle good idea. But when as most users, start using linux, they use sudo command with install to install stuff. They do not know that there is TUG and another texLive. This is a big mess.

Why not have just ONE version of texlive, and one place, instead of different packages on different linux versions and so on. someone needs to have a meeting with all the linux distros and sort this mess out.

tohecz

@Nasser do not use the Debian-based packages, it is quite a source of problems. Install from the tug.org website, you can choose the full install.

David Carlisle

15:54

@Nasser Not really (a) most users just use article class and cm fonts and a distribution from 1995 will work fine. (b) Most users of the linux distro version have everything they need or can get it using yum or apt-get or whatever. It is only people who hang arond sites like this who get worried that they have last year's version of a package.

Nasser

texlive on debian package manager screen:

tohecz

@DavidCarlisle I solved this by installing the official one (in /usr/share/texmf), then install the official one (in /usr/local/texlive) and then give /usr/local/bin larger priority than /usr/bin

Nasser

David Carlisle

@Nasser Either way it's not really a "mess" and a lot easier than getting a large tape of the unix tex distribution, compiling it from source and then trying to add additional latex packages by using JANET ftp from the aston tex archive or from the states via a JANET/internet relay (which involved at least a day to fetch anything)

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle it is really more than just this. It is the idea of using software engineering right. There should be one version, one source, and one known fixed places to install something from. This mess extends to Linux itself as well. Too many different versions of same thing all over the place. Any way, getting off topic, so I'll be quite and just use TUG's texlive

David Carlisle

15:59

@tohecz Yes I do something with cygwin, cygwin's tex is installed somewhere and I hav ea tug cygwin texlive in front of it in the path.

@Nasser it's like saying there should be one linux not debian and fedora and ubuntu and .... one linux package system not yum and apt-get and whatever, saying it would be simpler doesn't actually make it happen. Perhaps everyone should use Windows, or a Mac or PS/2 or something. Life's complicated:-)

tohecz

@DavidCarlisle Comodore64 FTW :D

Paulo Cereda

@DavidCarlisle Xbox!

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle I am talking about the same NAME coming from 2 different places. If debian texlive was NOT called texlive, then it is OK. if it was called debianTex for example. fedora has different name from mint. I am talking about calling something the same name, when it is different somehow. Any way, I do not think having 100 different flavors for Linux is a good thing. Or for any software. Users do not really want 100 different choices of one thing, just one good to use.

Paulo Cereda

@Nasser The problem is: packagers usually do not own the app they package, so renaming might cause serious problems with licensing.

ach

But @Nasser isn't this the case for all packaged goods you might get via apt-get ? It is just quite evident in TeX distros because of the pace of updates - but you would have the very same problem with any other software

@cgnieder books are made so they can be put on the shelf and look good

cgnieder

16:14

@ach Ah right! I always keep forgetting that :)

doctorate

16:42

does anybody here have experience with indexing, i have some philosophical questions to ask any help?

i would like to imaging my indexing/glossary/acronym before hitting the reality of writing, any help?

Marco Daniel

@Gonzola: I uploaded the new version.

Paulo Cereda

@MarcoDaniel fix Gonzalo's name. :)

tohecz

@MarcoDaniel lol :)

Marco Daniel

@PauloCereda damn

Paulo Cereda

@MarcoDaniel <3

@tohecz Tom! How are you?

Marco Daniel

16:51

@Gonzalo: I uploaded the new version.

@PauloCereda Now!

doctorate

anybody has experience in indexing/glossary/acronym workflow, I want to use imakeidx, glossaries, xindy, arara for automation, anyone cna help in his advise?

tohecz

@PauloCereda quite ok, I just have to hurry up, I'll log in again later

bye

Paulo Cereda

@tohecz See ya Tom! :)

@doctorate Wow, quite a big Swiss army knife for TeX. :)

doctorate

@PauloCereda, i was bereaved from this Swiss knife for a quite time, until I get rid of MikTes and put on the TexLive and thats why.

Marco Daniel

@doctorate What's the issue

Paulo Cereda

16:55

@MarcoDaniel: which reminds me, we are not in MiKTeX yet. :)

doctorate

@PauloCereda, I am still convince the tex community is still shy to say how to use them efficiently

Marco Daniel

@PauloCereda You are the Windows user ;-) -- lol

doctorate

i wan to write my phd, under this motto: success favors the prepared tex document

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate Well, to be honest, I'm not sure what "efficiently" means in this context. :)

doctorate

@PauloCereda, don't worry

Paulo Cereda

16:56

@MarcoDaniel Hey! :) My Windows machine died a horrible death. :) Woohoo!

@Marco: you use Windows at work and doesn't have TeX with you! How's got the last laugh now? :P

doctorate

@PauloCereda, i mean what should be the workflow, for these tools,

Marco Daniel

@PauloCereda Indeed -- CRY

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, you have written many indices/glossareis, etc,

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate Ah, I see. :) Ask @Marco, he's the arara guy. :)

Marco Daniel

@PauloCereda Only the Camerlengo of the Holy Bird.

;-)

Paulo Cereda

16:58

@MarcoDaniel You are the next in the succession line. :)

doctorate

I want to ask general things: during writing, how do you, index words, some of them glossaries also, some of them are acronyms, so how do you address thesse in the flow of text wriiting, paulo, marco, if this is a big questions, shall I post it an dyou reply?

Marco Daniel

@doctorate If you work with imakeidx you should compile you document with shell-escape. Then imakeidx will do the xindy job. makeglossaries (the script) does the job for all auxiliary files created by glossaries.

doctorate

I mean practically in a a large Phd document, or a boook, some words are glossaries, acronym and and index at teh same time, how to mark them effectively?

@MarcoDaniel, i figured out this also lately, but I am talking now about the marking up words in day-to-day long term writing process.

Marco Daniel

@doctorate Sorry I can't understand what do you want to achieve

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, when u write a long text, you want to index every occurance of words, so you do \index{thatword}, but if it is an acronym also and a glossary, so in reality what would be the marking here for this word?

let me give you an example already been posted, so to be clearer

this is just example of the concept but ignore the tool which is datagidx, i wnat to use other tools like imakeidx, xindy, etc.. so this is it:

4

Q: How to mark up different entry types (index/glossary/acronym/notation) at the same time in datagidx package?

I came across datagidx package, which is part of the datatool bundle, the killing feature of this package is that you can use it independently, not relying on external indexing applications, e.g., xindy or makeidx. One more feature, is that you can use it to address index, glossary (definitions),...

indexing glossaries acronyms datatool

@MarcoDaniel, other wish is to mark up the short version of the word, while its long version is shown in index, glossary, e.g., \somecommand{pdf}, and if pdf is in glossary database, it will show in glosary long version as well as in index

@MarcoDaniel, if one would like to do extensive indexing, every and every occurance of the word, can this be done without marking up each single word?

Marco Daniel

17:11

@doctorate I think you for such a request it is the most efficient way to define your own function.

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, i thought that is the wish of everybody, because in phd, if index is decided, then glossary and aconyms are most likely there also, so it would a good and common interest to envisage this pathway.

@MarcoDaniel, I will post this as question any suggestions to improve it to get relevant answers?

Marco Daniel

@doctorate With a mwe please --- I can say I didn't use all these lists ;-)

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, I agree, mostly is acronyms, less would be, acronyms, and index, very rare acronyms, glossaries, index

@MarcoDaniel, where can I find the shortcut commands and options of \index commands in imakeidx?

@MarcoDaniel, i found it in imakeidx manual, sorry

nutty about natty

17:33

hi there

another humble request for first-aiding:

(deadline on Monday)

how to hide (prevent from appearing) parts of (regular text) of table captions in TOC ?

am using threeparttables

caption

and tabulary pkg's, inter alia

\newcommand\stnote[1]{\protect\mTPTprint{\textsuperscript{\TPTtagStyle{#1}}}}

with \newcommand\mTPTprint[1]{}

and this \newcommand{\mtnote}[1]{\textsuperscript{\TPTtagStyle{#1}}}

(at least one of the two) does the trick for "footnotes" (superscripted-number)

now I need it for regular text

muchos gracias to anyone who can help!

sorry, meant LOT (list of tables) of course, not the TOC

getting closer: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/83392/…

in fact, very close :-)

SOLVED. (successfully implemented / compiled, yeah !!)

Luke

18:39

anyone know if it's possible to prevent \forlistcsloop from executing one handler iteration when the csname isn't defined?

I have a list that is populated with some \@starttoc stuff, but is undefined on the first pass, and I was hoping not to have to prefix my loops with an if check for the cs name definition

doctorate

19:49

@MarcoDaniel, hallo, based on your answer I am using these directives of arara, % arara: xelatex
% arara: makeglossaries
% arara: xelatex
% arara: xelatex

but how to add one for biblatex (biber backend) and one for index xelatex shell escape?

btw, index by imakeidx (xindy backend)

Nasser

20:03

Was just wondering, is there any inherit limitation of how large one single .tex file can be to process by pdflatex or later? For example, if I have a file say 10,000 pages, I assume it will work? (will take long time, I know) but assuming I have enough RAM and CPU, there is no hidden limits in Latex? doing quick search shows nothing.

I am thinking of appending many latex files into one, since I am tired of making links all the time, and was wondering about this...

Marco Daniel

@doctorate Take a look at the predefined rules of arara.

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, in manual or in dir?

Marco Daniel

@doctorate arara and the compilation of xindy via imakeindex are independent.

@doctorate Simple texdoc arara. -- This is the effort of @PauloCereda

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, biber worked but now I just need xelatex argument for shell escape in the directive rule

Marco Daniel

@doctorate As described in the document: % arara: xelatex: { shell: true }

It's equal to synctex as shown in you question. tex.stackexchange.com/questions/118890/…

Paulo Cereda

20:08

@MarcoDaniel Who? <3

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, thanks one more thing, for speeding up compilation, i noticed you used draft in the first pdflatex, is there any equivelant for xelatex?

Marco Daniel

@doctorate of course. It's equal.

@PauloCereda What? :-)

Paulo Cereda

@MarcoDaniel Where? :)

doctorate

@MarcoDaniel, so in this case one xelatex draft, two xelatex with shell : true, no problem or unnecessary delay in this?

@MarcoDaniel, i think arara is the mother of all packages

Marco Daniel

@doctorate The first compilation step should be used shell: true too. However if you want to avoid unnecessary compilation, you can work with arara RC4. It has nice new features: github.com/cereda/arara/wiki/Features-in-arara-4.0 -- I think in your case the feature "if changed" is interesting.

@doctorate @PauloCereda did/ is doing a great job.

Paulo Cereda

20:13

@MarcoDaniel expect a code rewritting for v4. :)

doctorate

@PauloCereda , thanks, for me latex is now a different subject

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate my pleasure. :)

percusse

@PauloCereda Where is the Qtikz for biblatex? Huh? I want my money back

doctorate

@PauloCereda, please for a noob like me, is RC4 a significant jump in speeding up compilation or it is just luxury for me?

Paulo Cereda

@MarcoDaniel: I'll hide easter eggs too. :)

Marco Daniel

20:15

@PauloCereda :-)

percusse

@doctorate Use also \include{} extensively.

Paulo Cereda

@percusse oooh.... work in progress, preliminary work? :)

percusse

You want cash in advance?

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate Well, I think you could stick with your current workflow. Some of the features @Marco highlighted in v4 wont make much of a difference, IMHO. :)

doctorate

@percusse, thnks, it is already there.

Marco Daniel

20:17

@doctorate Of course it speeds up the compilation. The compilation of bibercan be avoided. The same for index

Paulo Cereda

I agree that if changed might be useful, but the v4 code is still experimental/unstable.

@percusse Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

:)

doctorate

@PauloCereda, will it be in the next texlive version on 1st of july?

percusse

@doctorate Then how much overhead are we talking about here? 10 secs 10 mins?

doctorate

@percusse, after the araric era, i think no overhead is necessary

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate Sadly no, TL2013 is frozen right now. :( But hopefully v4 will be available soon (maybe in two months) and available via repository updates. :)

doctorate

20:21

@PauloCereda, % arara: xelatex { shell: true } , then error in this line:Apparently, there's an invalid directive at line 5. Please take a
look and fix it.

is it not predefined in arara, or what?

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate You forgot : after xelatex. :)

percusse

@doctorate I don't get it. You want to speed up but how much would it matter?

doctorate

@percusse, i don't have any idea, but it may depend on how extensive things are in the tex doc

@PauloCereda, what do you mean after?

@PauloCereda, sorry my bad

Paulo Cereda

@doctorate % arara: xelatex: { shell: true }

percusse

@doctorate Do you know what \include{} does?

doctorate

20:26

@percusse, thnk you for trying me, yes, i think it will call separate files for chapters with \clearpage also, right?

I cannot believe it, the first time in my TeX life, one click ALT+SHIFT+F2, did everything while chatting, really?!!!!!

araric revolution

doctorate

20:39

@percusse, you mean to decrease time of compilation, by calling \includeonly{file1, file 2}

tohecz

21:32

evening!

@Paulo I took me a long while, we went for a order-as-much-as-you-wish Sushi and we just ate too much :D

mozartstraße

22:21

@PauloCereda: I have a controversial "news" for you. Read the last section of this. :-)

David Carlisle

!!/cricket

@Nasser heiko had an answer where he worked out the exact number (based on the size of integers and the object reference format n pdf)

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle I see. Thanks, will look it up. btw, I have an idea for Latex, and I think only ones like you can design it.

David Carlisle

30

Q: What's the maximum number of pages a PDF produced by pdfTeX can have?

Are there some limitations regarding the pdflatex command with respect to the count of pages of the input files? My highest page count, when compiling, was 90 without any troubles. (2008) Currently another document will be prepared which will be approx. 170 pages in sum. EDIT: Thanks to all an...

pdftex compiling

Nasser

in HTML, there is something called grid based design. Where there is an underline grid on the page. Next, this grid is used to help in the layout of things on the page. This makes it easy to layout things, since there is a uniform grid to use. Like a snap grid. One can decide on the grid size before. It is really neat idea

I do not know if something like this can be implemented in Latex.

or even it makes sense.

Grid (graphic design)

A typographic grid is a two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner. The less common printing term “reference grid,” is an unrelated system with roots in the early days of printing. History Antecedents Before the invention of movable type and printing, simple grids based on optimal proportions had been used to arrange handwritten text on pages. One such system, known as the “Villiards Diagram,” wa...

David Carlisle

@Nasser search for the word grid on this or any other tex forum you will find lots of questions (not so many answers) there are latex packages for this but latex2e doesn't really help Context has more complete support (I'm told) and there are plans for latex3. But TeX's box and glue model really doesn't like grids It's like building scaffolding out of springs.

Nasser

22:35

@DavidCarlisle I see. thanks. When targeting the web, or even for paper only, having an underlining grid really makes sense. I always wanted something like this. Most of the time I spend on layout, as I never like how things look. A grid like system will make layout design much simpler.

Adobe dreamweaver has that build-in

David Carlisle

@Nasser It's easy to have a grid based system where you always add fixed lengths everywhere, but TeX is really designed to optimise white space stretching so almost always you have stretchable space above and below section heads and inserts and equations etc, if you fix everything you stay on the grid but get poor page breaks and ugly spaces at the bottom, if you stretch you fall off alignment ideally you want to be able to strech in discrete units, ie allow the space above and below a ..

Nasser

@DavidCarlisle good answer on memory limitations there. just +1 it. Good to know there is little limit. I am planning on putting all my reports in one file. WIll let htlatex make the TOC and the links. I am tried of putting each HW and report in different folder and having to add links manually between thing. Let Latex do it. It will be a huge file, but I have lots of RAM :)

egreg

@DavidCarlisle You have an unfair advantage all the time here. ;-) You can make up English grammar, we can't.

David Carlisle

... section head to stretch but only so the total size of the heading is a multiple of baselineskip, you can do that in tex but only by taking full control at the macro layer you can not allow any access to the primitive \vskip

@egreg me having an advantage is fair, you having an advantage less so.

tohecz

!!/battle

Nasser

22:48

@DavidCarlisle, what I mean, things will FIT inside the grid. The grid is fixed. It is like leggo board. Like this:

David Carlisle

@Nasser don't mention lego, you have no idea how much lego (and how little floor) I can see from here

Nasser

Imagine the blue block above is my figure. I simple put it there, and it will SNAP and adjust it size automatically to fit in. Same for text, equations, etc... I can resize things, but they always move by grid increments.

I love lego

David Carlisle

@Nasser yes that's what you want I know, but what I am saying is that you want to build it from TeX and TeX isn't made out of rigid Danish plastic it is made out of American rubber, so things don't quite work the way you hope.

tohecz

@Nasser Switch to Patoline. Once you find yourself completely lost in that system, switch back to *TeX and forget grid typesetting

Nasser

can't you rewrite Tex so it is like this? You can do anything with Tex. I know.

David Carlisle

22:54

@Nasser People have tried to come up with non tex systems but it is hard. LaTeX Context and all the packages are not rewriting TeX they are written in TeX that is a very different thing.

Nasser

@tohecz only reason I was looking at grid based typesetting, is because I do not like to see lots of wasted white space on my pages (web or printed). Which means I have to spend more time in layout trying to force/move things (like using 2 columns, mini-pages, tables) etc.. to fit as much information on one page. Grid based system will make this easier. My latex pages have lots of empty white space in them.

tohecz

@Nasser grid typesetting cannot descrease the amount of whitespace, the only way how to force grid typesetting is by adding whitespace

Nasser

@tohecz but it will make it easier to move things around? Like the lego example above. If the underlining board was not there, it will hard to layout things. that is what I mean. Page design should be like putting blocks on lego board.

tohecz

your blocks should should have different width => problem solved

David Carlisle

23:19

@Nasser grid layout makes some things easier and makes some things look nicer (eg baselines in a two column layout lining up) but as @tohecz says it must increase the amount of white space generally

David Carlisle

23:30

@Nasser the problem is you think a lego layout is nice until you want to centre that blue piece on the yellow board and find you can't the grid forces you to be out by half a unit. TeX uses a smooth board and fits springs to either side of the block so it naturally centres. Both systems have advantages and disadvantages, but it's hard to have both at the same time.

tohecz

dammit my last message is a complete mess. Good sign that I should go to bed. Night!

Nasser

23:44

is it possible to make pdflatex print my HW on a 11 by 17 inch printer? i.e. typeset the pages so things are for that size? i.e. can I just do
\usepackage[paperwidth=11in, paperheight=17in]{geometry} or do I have to change document class also? or one or the other will do? I should try it, I know :)

Ok, so it worked, but all what happend is that the paper size became large, but latex itself did not spread the content over the paper actually like I thought it will do. THe contented remained as before, but now more white space around it. I think I need to change the class itself. Will work on this more....

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