@Argo Like I said, you'll have to do some redefinitions

@Argo Give me two mins

@JosephWright Sorry, you lost me.

@FaheemMitha KOMA provides facilities to store names, with addresses, and stuff in some kind of database. There will be a loop over the database, one page generated for Mr. Foo, one page for mr. baz and one for Jane Fonda. Helpful if you want to manage some newletter for the people in town. If it is just for two or three people, making it by hand might be faster.

@JosephWright Ah, ok. Right.

@Argo Untested as yet but I think right:

\let\savedInputIfFileExists\InputIfFileExists
\documentclass[oneside, 12pt, a4paper, article]{memoir}
\let\InputIfFileExists\savedInputIfFileExists
\usepackage{scrlfile}
\makeatletter
\long\def\InputIfFileExists#1#2{%
  \begingroup\expandafter\expandafter\expandafter\endgroup
  \expandafter\ifx\csname #1-@alias\endcsname\relax
    \expandafter\@secondoftwo
  \else
    \scr@replacefile@msg{\csname #1-@alias\endcsname}{#1}%
    \expandafter\@firstoftwo
  \fi
    {%
      \expandafter\InputIfFileExists\expandafter

Classic case of memoir and KOMA doing much the same thing in different ways

@Johannes_B Hey, where did Jane Fonda come from?

@FaheemMitha Dunno, that name just popped into my head :-)

@JosephWright

Wow

@DavidCarlisle We obviously differ in our view: DVCS systems mean that you have all of the tags locally, but that is pretty awkward with SVN in my limited experience

I'm as impressed as always

@Johannes_B You know that's a real person, right? :-)

@Argo Easy enough: you want to read xor

@JosephWright yes but if you actually want to build a system corresponding to each of the tags you need to check out two separate directories of files, whatever VCS you use,

@JosephWright It's probably the scary-looking tex-code that does the trick. You guys seem a lot more like wizards than usual c/python programmers.

@JosephWright Someone should write a version of LaTeX which requires less \expandafters.

@FaheemMitha they have, it's called latex3

@DavidCarlisle Indeed

@DavidCarlisle Let's use it already.

@FaheemMitha To be honest, I could have skipped some of them and used e-TeX, but I wanted to change as little as possible

@JosephWright ok

@FaheemMitha yep, just looked at wikipedia to find out who exactely :-D

@DavidCarlisle If you want them at the same time, yes, but if you want to flick between them ...

@JosephWright you can use svn diff without checking out (you have to have access to the repository of course)

So, if I want to separate to addresses by a line (assuming I have multiple ones) how should I do it?

@DavidCarlisle s/have/are/

:-)

@FaheemMitha Many packages use L3 under the hood. chemmacros, siunitx ... many more following, i noticed.

@Johannes_B Indeed

@Johannes_B that's nice.

@Johannes_B I once attended a talk she gave at UNC, by accident. It was very boring. She read from a script. But the audience seemed to like it.

@FaheemMitha From a mere technical standpoint, \begin{letter}{address one \rule{.4pt}{\linewidth}address two},

from a logical point of view: the letter carrier has one letter, addressed to two people. How is he deciding to whom he delivers?

@Johannes_B I'm going to print that letter out multiple times. Each version will have multiple to addresses. Then I'm going to put it in envelopes addressed to different people.

This is known as a Cunning Plan.

So, anyone else here who dislikes Git?

@Johannes_B I suppose a better way would be to have one to address and have the other addresses in a cc. And then rotate the to addresses one at a time. But is there an easy way to do this?

@Johannes_B Can I do a centered line instead?

@FaheemMitha KOMA provides the already mentioned database feature, and the \cc command

No Git haters? Dammit.

@FaheemMitha Try raisebox, was a real fix hack.

@DavidCarlisle Anyway, since we don't tag releases in SVN anyway it's of no actual consequence :-)

@Johannes_B Database feature means you put it in a separate file? Any easy example on the net?

@FaheemMitha No, in the KOMA-doc ;-)

@FaheemMitha As I've said before, Git is going to win by weigh of numbers: for interface I prefer Mercurial, though I see the technical advantages of Git

@FaheemMitha There might be, but the package doc is always the most reliable place to look something up.

@JosephWright what technical advantages?

@FaheemMitha @Johannes_B vvvv

\documentclass{scrlttr2}
\begin{document}

\def\zz#1{
\begin{letter}{#1}
\opening{Hi guys}
text
\end{letter}}

\zz{Johannes Bottcher\\another street}

\zz{Faheem Mitha\\Some Street}

\end{document}

@Johannes_B As David once remarked, nobody reads the documentation.

@FaheemMitha The back-end data model is better in Git, for example

@JosephWright It is? How so?

@DavidCarlisle Depending on how many, this will work just fine.

@DavidCarlisle Wow. High powered stuff.

@FaheemMitha Viewed as a filing system rather than as version control, it scales better

@JosephWright filing system?

@FaheemMitha Yes: the version control stuff in Git is in a sense secondary :-)

@JosephWright oh

@FaheemMitha It's all irrelevant to most users, of course: shows up for massive repos!

@FaheemMitha Some operations in Mercurial are or at least were less 'natural' than in Git, but the gap has closed (and one can find examples the other way)

@JosephWright Actually, I heard that Mercurial scales better than Git for large repos.

@FaheemMitha Depends on how you do it

@JosephWright I didn't realise there were different ways to do it.

@FaheemMitha Someone wanted 6666 karma

@FaheemMitha As I say, in the end the decisions here are not technical, they are about social pressures, etc. See the fact that there are other open source DVCS implementations but you won't find many people using them

@Canageek that makes absolutely no sense.

@FaheemMitha You aren't as crazy about numbers as some people

@Canageek If you say so.

@FaheemMitha Why? :-)

@Johannes_B Let me rephrase. I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about.

karma is an Indian word. Or used to be. Before the Slashdotters and people of that ilk got hold of it.

@FaheemMitha Someone was talking about how they had 6663 karma (The sum of all the upvotes and downvotes) and wanted exactly 6666 and were seeing if they could get it.

@Canageek when/where was that?

@FaheemMitha Some crazy dude.

@FaheemMitha It was the question I'm replaying too

@FaheemMitha He thinks he is a penguin

@FaheemMitha It was @Johannes_B

@Johannes_B Who does?

@Canageek Who thinks he is a penguin?

@FaheemMitha I do. I am a penguin. Didn't you notice?

@Johannes_B why do you think you are a penguin?

@Johannes_B No, I didn't. Do you live at the North Pole?

@FaheemMitha No, i don't. Almost no penguins live north of the aquator.

Hmm. Germany. I didn't know they were any German penguins.

@Johannes_B They don't?

@FaheemMitha Sure, also Saxon penguins. Ask @ChristianHupfer

South Pole then, I guess.

@FaheemMitha South pole. North pole is polar bears.

@Johannes_B Interesting.

@FaheemMitha Penguins live on the southern hemisphere ;-)

Oh, excuse my ignorance, everyone.

I don't know any penguins personally, you see.

Until now, of course.

@FaheemMitha Nevermind, many confuse it due to popular ignorance :-p

@Johannes_B that's me. Ignorant to a fault.

@FaheemMitha But you know that @PauloCereda is a duck, right?

@Johannes_B Yes, he advertises that frequently.

You and he should get together. Have a cross-species exchange of ideas.

\begin{filecontents*}{nondeatpoets.adr}
	\addrentry{Liver}{Tasty Fried}{Some hot plate }{}{}{}{}{}{}
	\addrentry{Faheem}{Mitha}{Some Street}{}{}{}{}{}{}
	\addrentry{Johannes}{Bottcher}{Pingu Land}{}{}{}{}{}{}
\end{filecontents*}
\documentclass{scrlttr2}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand*{\addrentry}[8]{%
	\begin{letter}{#2 #1\\#3}\opening{Hi guys,}
		glad we aren't dead.
		\cc{to all non dead poets}
		\closing{see you}
	\end{letter}
}
\input{nondeatpoets.adr}
\end{document}

@FaheemMitha I speak duck as well.

@PauloCereda Quack.

@Johannes_B yummy.

@Johannes_B exciting. Does that handle CCs as well?

@FaheemMitha Above an example from th KOMA-manual. Not very handy syntax i have to say.

@Johannes_B Hmm.

@FaheemMitha See my cc, to all non dead poets. There might be better tools, depending on how many entries you have to deal with. For example, you can handle a simple database with biblatex quite easy.

@Johannes_B oh more or less same as I made up earlier

@ChristianHupfer Btw, see the example above. ;-)

@DavidCarlisle Yes :-D I realised that too.

@Johannes_B biblatex is a bit custom. can it handle arbitrary things?

@FaheemMitha What do you mean?

@Johannes_B Bibtex/latex is for handling bibliographies, right?

@UlrikeFischer wrote an article in DTK about handling address data with biblatex. Don't have it at hand right now.

Does it handle addresses too?

@Johannes_B Hmm, interesting. Is that within its scope?

@FaheemMitha Yes. Biblatex/biber are a modern reimplementation. You can tweak it to handle addresses.

@Johannes_B oh.

Can you tweak it to do arbitrary referencing?

@FaheemMitha If field one is called title or street doesn't matter for the software, author already contains a name. You can define new fields, like name, street, zip code and some support to handle it and off you go. We might get Ulrike (or someone else) to translate the article in english.

In \rule{.2\linewidth}{.4pt} how do I do a midline rule instead?

@Johannes_B Oh. Must check it out.

@FaheemMitha \raisebox{.4\baselineskip}{<theRule>} you need to play around with the height tough.

@FaheemMitha What do you mean?

@Johannes_B I'd have expected a mid-line rule thing.

@FaheemMitha Like verical rule?

@Johannes_B Use if for referencing stuff other than bibliographies.

@Johannes_B Not sure what that is. I just meant drawing a line in the middle of the, er line.

rather than down at the base.

@FaheemMitha As i said, the software really doesn't care if it is called title or street, as long as you gave instructions what to do.

@FaheemMitha Vertical ;-)

@FaheemMitha \begin{letter}{Faheem Mitha\\Some Street\\\raisebox{.3\baselineskip}{\rule{.2\linewidth}{.4pt}}\\Johannes

Guys, it has been fun today, but i gotta go. It is late. See you. :-)

@Johannes_B take care. Thanks.

@FaheemMitha Look at the definition above, it is so simple. You might as well use datatool. which, i bet, has a nicer interface.

Using \hline as a separator doesn't work. I get a misplaced no-align error.

@Johannes_B I have used datatool. But it doesn't do referencing afaik.

@FaheemMitha Notable

@Johannes_B huh?

@FaheemMitha \hline is for use in tables.

I've only ever used \hline in tables.

So, gotta go for real now. See you.

@Johannes_B What, only? Isn't that discrimination?

@Johannes_B @Johannes_B: the article has appeared last year in english in TUGboat.

@Johannes_B Take care (again). And thanks for the help.

@UlrikeFischer Article about biber/biblatex?

@FaheemMitha Yes, tug.org/TUGboat/Contents/contents35-3.html.

@UlrikeFischer interesting. Thanks. Would this integrate with datatool?

I'm getting an authentication required login thing.

@FaheemMitha how many people are you sending any given letter to? hundreds?

@DavidCarlisle Current letter is 4. The maximum I've done in recent times is like 10 or so.

@FaheemMitha you don't need a database to store 4 addresses.

@DavidCarlisle I know. It was for general reference. Not specifically for this.

How do I insert an empty line in to addresses? I think that might be better than a line.

@FaheemMitha OK, put personally, I use tools if they make things easier, not of they make things more complicated:-)

@FaheemMitha \\ \mbox{} \\ ?

@DavidCarlisle sure. that seems a good rule to follow.

@DavidCarlisle Ok.

@UlrikeFischer do you have a copy of that somewhere else I can download/read?

@DavidCarlisle I was actually interested in using biblatex/biber to handle correspondence. Maybe you remember some of my letters on this subject from earlier.

@FaheemMitha Sorry I have no idea what you are trying. I didn't follow the chat. But imho it doesn't make much sense to mix two database system (bib and csv) for a few addresses.

@UlrikeFischer Ok.

It wasn't for a few addresses. I had other possible applications in mind.

@FaheemMitha There are some files here from a speech here dante.de/events/dante2014/Programm/Vortraege.html#fischer

@UlrikeFischer Ok, thanks.

In 'scrlttr2` the lower margin seems excessively large in my example. Can anyone suggest a good way to force more text at the bottom of the page?

The is the first page, incidentally.

Oh, surprisingly, I found some hits for this in tex.sx.

@UlrikeFischer Seems i did not notice that.

@FaheemMitha \enlargethispage provided by basic LaTeX.

@Johannes_B I wound up using firstfoot=false,enlargefirstpage=true as mentioned in this answer.

@Johannes_B just can't stay away, eh? :-)

@FaheemMitha Ok, gotta really go now. How do you like me new profile picture? Does it remind you of penguins?

Is \enlargethispage a standard LaTeX thing? I've never heard of it before.

@Johannes_B Still seeing green rectangles.

@FaheemMitha Yes

@Johannes_B huh

@FaheemMitha I was a pruple quare/triangle guy before

@Johannes_B why are green rectangles more penguiny?

You should just put a picture of TuX as your profile and be done with it.

@FaheemMitha They aren't. This is the gravatar github assigned to me ;-)

@Johannes_B you could change it.

@FaheemMitha I lilke it. It is a martian with a moustache. :-p

And a penguin

both speak duck

Nice piece of comic writing.

tug.org/TUGboat/tb35-3/tb111bigelow.pdf

Predictable, but still amusing.

@Johannes_B penguins speak duck? Say Quack.

gotta go for real now. See you guys. :-)

Quack

@Johannes_B you said that before. :-)

Quack would be a good name for a programming language. Wonder why nobody has picked it up before.

@FaheemMitha scratch.mit.edu/projects/10880322

@DavidCarlisle I stand corrected. Or sit corrected. Whatever.

@FaheemMitha was just first google hit for "quack programming" :-)

@DavidCarlisle yes. I guess I should google every assertion I make now.

Wow, some people have a lot of spare time.

shakespearelang.sourceforge.net/report/shakespeare/…