@manooooh -- If the author is sloppy, it may be impossible for an editor to make a document accessible. At the very least, it makes the conversion much more expensive, and that affects everybody.

@barbarabeeton we are assuming that the author is a normal person. He has no interest in writing a document with a style guide

(unless he wants to or is imposed)

@DavidCarlisle dealing with this exactly today :(

@yo' yes :(

@manooooh -- What you are saying is that the person doesn't need to care about grammar or spelling either, Ignoring that just means that readers may not grasp the intended meaning. Not everything can be left up to the editor. If a paper is sloppily written, a good acquisitions editor will insist that the author remedy the problems before the paper is accepted for publication, I'm not talking about line spacing, but comprehensibility.

@barbarabeeton and I am talking about line spacing, and not comprehensibility. It is clear that a document must be understandable, but do not go too far to take care of everything, because we would go crazy

@manooooh I fully agree with @barbarabeeton that the authors need to make a huge effort to make their papers or books clear and unambiguous. I am not aware of any tool that is better suited for this task than LaTeX.

@manooooh You're are saying a bad thing here, and you'll understand it when you're 50 and start becoming long-sighted.

@DavidCarlisle The mouseover text on this one is also worth a look. (I have colleagues who will print out a pdf, scan the printout, and mail the result. The mind boggles.)

@PauloCereda and nobody asks me ;-)

@DavidCarlisle The big "Mathematics Handbook for Science and Engineering", with more than 500 pages, full of tables and formulas was set with Framemaker. Now it is redone with LaTeX, and I've heard it is not trivial to do the conversion.

Quick question: what should I do if I see a question in the review queue that has been flagged as a duplicate of the wrong question? (It is a duplicate, but of another question.)

@Circumscribe Mark it as duplicate of the correct question

@CarLaTeX But I think it might be closed as a duplicate of both then. I'm considering voting "Leave open" and then flagging it as a duplicate.

@Circumscribe I think, if you vote for leaving open, then you can't vote to close. You can simply vote to close as duplicate, choosing the correct duplicate

@CarLaTeX Oh, I didn't know that. (The first part.)

@CarLaTeX I've done that (the second part) before and it ended up closed as “a duplicate of <original duplicate> and <my duplicate>”.

I'm probably overthinking this :).

@Circumscribe Don't worry

@UlrikeFischer I miss you too! <3

@CarLaTeX Yeah, it wasn't particularly important (and the question is now closed).

I do wonder if doing what I said would have been “correct” though. (It seems you can vote to close after having voted to leave open btw.)

(but not as part of the same review)

Can someone distract me a bit? I got a test in a few hours and start showing nerves.

@DavidCarlisle I don't understand what you mean. I'll reform my question- if within a command you need a value that is used more than once, what do best practices dictate to do- 1) calculate it beforehand and save it in a def, edef, gdef, a count, a counter, idunno; 2) since computers are rather efficient it doesn't matter that it does 2 more arithmetic operations, so don't worry- but I'm asking for the best practice, what one should do

@PauloCereda I spent last Friday walking snowy and icy footpaths in beautiful hills. You really don't know what you miss :-)

Does anybody know how to animate an airplane in a beamer presentation? I have posted a question tex.stackexchange.com/questions/475463/…

@DavidCarlisle tex.stackexchange.com/questions/475463/…

@CarLaTeX @DavidCarlisle is I think busy today ...

@JosephWright Am I missing something? (He could reply tomorrow)

I'm unsure what exactly this is called to search for it- hyperref links between documents are possible, the pgf/tikz ones are an example; what are they called- cross-file? And do they work to specific labels inside the target pdf?

Okay, so cross-file via URL and rel. path; but to a specific label?

@CarLaTeX No, just that I know he's busy and wanted to let you know

Could you someone tell me how to convert a pdftex output to a .gif with standalone package (or even any package)?

@Raaja You'll need to use an external tool

@Raaja ImageMagick, IrfranView, ...

@JosephWright Huhhh I see. Okay thanks!!

@marmot Aha! you participated here: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/474841/fun-with-tikz-dogs :D

@CarLaTeX hello!

@CarLaTeX could you tell me how many good mathematicians are worry about writing documents to blind people, please?

@manooooh It was the main topic at the last GuIT meeting. Politecnico di Torino is carrying on a project just to make math books available for blind people

@CarLaTeX you are not answering my question. If you think that mathematicians must worry about writing documents for blind people, they should write it for colorblind people too, do you agree?

Anyone know what the current state on PDFs with forms are these days? We have a specific requirement: The data needs to be saved in the PDF and the user has to upload the filled in PDF. Submitting from the PDF is not allowed due to the systems being used (plus not all PDF viewers supports it).

Related: anyone have any good suggestions on how to get the data out of the PDF?

Background: we're considering this setup for a very large exam. The exam system only allows users to upload, say a PDF file. So it would be nice if we could make a PDF, with boxes the students can just fill in (data is just integers), save the PDF, and upload when they are done.

Our current setup is just using paper.

Hi @daleif!!

@daleif maybe?: pdfescape.com/?noredirect=true

It is a free online (and very good) PDF editor; you can add text and other stuff

Try uploading a PDF and add text so you can see how it works

I have a look at some point. Would prefer something which we have 100% control of. Also we are talking about 700 students, so I need this to just work.

@daleif what do you mean by "Would prefer something which we have 100% control of"?

@daleif it works. Every student must go to that site, upload its PDF and fill it

and then download it and share it to you

@daleif with a current adobe reader there should be no problem. E.g. I could enter some text in the field and than save it without problem:

\documentclass{scrreprt}
\usepackage[]{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\begin{Form}
enter some text: \TextField[name=test,width=3cm]{}
\end{Form}
\end{document}

@UlrikeFischer yes, it works too!

@Raaja Yes I did. When I posted the thing there I hadn't realized that the "hot dog" joke had already been made...

@manooooh not allowed. They have very limited access to the internet. If things like this was allowed I'd just make it as a web form.

@daleif I'd say: stick to the current setup. People here are also talking about "digital exams", but honestly I do not think we are there yet, and perhaps will not be. I don't even see the problem with using pen and paper, it has proven to work well. I understand that my point of view does not help you, though, but good luck!

@yo' -- I hope you were wearing either good lug boots or spikes of some sort. (Yes, wintry trails can be very beautiful, but do be careful. Grown people don't bounce very well.)

@mickep so someone has to type in 42 * 700 numbers to determine the students grades? Why not get the students to do this for us. We are in luck here, it is just numbers, there are no formulas. If there were formulas, I agree paper is better.

:D @marmot

@daleif Oh, for some quiz-type questions, we have a system Mozquizto, which happens to have been developed by one of the lecturers here. Works very well, and it also corrects for you. :)

I like the @UlrikeFischer proposal

Heya @JosephWright are you around now?

Hmm never mind. I will just type my problem here.

I refer to this question and the currently accepted answer which I provided long ago. It was my account but I deleted it.

Due to some changes in dvipdf, the answer is no longer accurate.

These are the changes that need to be made, also taking into account consistency of code.

I refer to the line $dvipdf='dvipdfm'

This line should be edited to $dvipdf='dvipdfm %S' for it to work properly.

For consistency, we should edit the line $pdflatex='pdflatex -synctex=1' to $pdflatex='pdflatex -synctex=1 %S'

We should also edit the line $latex='latex -synctex=1' to $latex='latex -synctex=1 %S'

We should also edit the line $dvips='dvips -P pdf -t a4' to $dvips='dvips -P pdf -t a4 %S'

Altogether, 5 lines should be edited, 1 in the first big grey box, 2 in the second, and 2 in the third.

It would be good if you could edit it, since I currently have no tex account, let along 2000 rep to edit it.

Basically add a %S to each of the 5 lines in the answer.

I just tested this code and it works. Without the %S things don't work anymore.

@Jasper where, here?:

and the rest of two 2 source codes

@manooooh There are actually 5 lines to be edited. Basically, the 5 lines that end in the quote mark.

This answer is important, because it is the most complete answer online for texworks and latexmk.

And I want to make sure it works for current configurations.

@manooooh Yes, but you don't have editing powers, so better to bother someone else. =)

That's why I pinged @JosephWright for this, that's all, thanks.

@Jasper I do have, but as always the text Your edit will be placed in a queue until it is peer reviewed. is shown

@manooooh I see, and have you done that?

@Jasper no, I do not want to edit something in which I do not know what to edit (I thank you that you have explained it but I am a bit clumsy)

@manooooh OK, then we will just leave it to Joseph, which is what I intended. =)

Better wait for Joseph :P

Yes, otherwise users will be confused as to why the edit is justified.

@yo' ooh :)

@Jasper I added five %S, check if they are right.

@UlrikeFischer Yes, it is correct, thank you!

@JosephWright Ulrike has done the edit, so you don't need to do it anymore!

It does work on my machine now. I can confirm that. If it does not work on other machines, then of course they will need to figure out what further modification needs to be made. Thank you.

@marmot it almost took me an hour to fly the plane along a straight line ;) but but but, u were simply bamboozling it, as it is a kite ;) very nice answer!!

The address texhelp at springer dot de rejects e-mails from me. Is anyone else experiencing the same problem by chance? If so, who if the culprit?

    The original message was received at Mon, 18 Feb 2019 15:38:19 GMT
    from m0128438.ppops.net [127.0.0.1]

       ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
    <texhelp@springer.de>
        (reason: 550 #5.1.0 Address rejected.)

       ----- Transcript of session follows -----
    ... while talking to [195.128.10.23]:
    >>> RCPT To:<texhelp@springer.de>

@user0 it says <texhelp@springer.de>... User unknown. Are you sure you have written the email correctly? If yes, I do not know how to help you, I am sorry

@Raaja Yes, these days flying takes time, with all these security checks and pre-boarding and so on. So 1h is actually pretty good. ;-)

@manooooh texhelp@springer.de is what refguide.pdf of one of their class files (svmono version 5.5) says. An E-Mail to Frank Holzwarth also fails with

550 5.1.1 <frank.holzwarth@springer.com>: Recipient address rejected: address does not exist in this domain

 Does anyone know what's going on?

@manooooh I thought that folks here might communicate with Springer more often than me, so...

... and the certificate of texwelt.de has just ran out. In case some admins from there are reading here, they might wish to correct the issue.

@manooooh They should mind also colorblind people

@manooooh All the mathematicians involved in the project are worrying about that

@CarLaTeX if you believe that, all people who write documents should worry about writing a document that meets all the characteristics to satisfy all types of diseases in the world. Does it seem reasonable for a mathematician to look for methods to make a document with these characteristics accessible?

@manooooh They should pay attention so that their books can be read also by colorblind people

@CarLaTeX I would not be surprised if their level of mathematics is high

@CarLaTeX a mathematician does not take care of that, that is what someone else deals with. The mathematician knows that people with disabilities can read his document, but that is not the most important thing for him

@CarLaTeX "I would not be surprised if their level of mathematics is high" I mean "I would not be surprised if their level of mathematics is not high"

@Raaja I really appreciate the effort :) I learnt a couple of things today . Day well spent

Bash 5.0 in Fedora Rawhide/30. :)

@marmot I would not regret that one hour today though ;) learnt animation with Tikz. Pity I'm still struggling to create a gif.

@GermanShepherd me too;)

@Raaja ^^^^^^

And, you are welcome

@GermanShepherd

@marmot I will try it as I reach home ;) thanks a lot!! My work laptop didn't allow me to use any external SWs.

@Raaja I see, the laptop is the boss. ;-) (What is an SW?)

Software

;)

@Raaja I see. How is convert external?

@marmot no no, in the morn @JosephWright suggested me to use SWs like imagemagick, irfanview to render a gif. However, I could not get to install it in my work pc. Hence, I decided to wait until I reach home to use my uni pc ;)

Now, what can I say, I have a TeX based solution instead (yay!!)

@Raaja yayy

@Raaja Yes, the animations work without external software. The only thing is that AFAIK the only animations you may upload here are gifs, which is where the external software comes into play. (I use the beamer built-in animations a lot in my talks.)

@PauloCereda I checked out your arara manual for the first time today. I was shocked to see it is 171 pages long!

It is too difficult for me. I will stick to latexmk for now. =)

@Jasper I tried to summarize a lot of stuff. :)

I do wish the PSTricks book gets an update. The English version is only in its 1st edition, while the German one has gone through many editions. =)

@StefanKottwitz did you see that the certificate of texwelt.de doesn't work?

@marmot ohh I see, I will give you an update in a few mins.

@manooooh yayyy

For a moment I mixed up marmot and manooooh.

@Jasper :D

@marmot success!! : tex.stackexchange.com/questions/475463/… (yayyyy @manooooh)

@barbarabeeton Not really, I had quite standard low goretex shoes, no walking poles, nothing. It was a thrill :)

@barbarabeeton Wintry trails aren't necessarily icy, so it's often not necessary to take special precautions when hiking them. Speaking of icy, how is your recovery from the broken hip going? Back to your old self yet?

@HaraldHanche-Olsen -- Well, @yo' did say that the trails were icy. As for my hip, I'm still carrying a cane, but it's mostly "insurance". On level surfaces, I don't need it, and I'm taking tai chi classes where I don't need it. But it's there in case I need to clamber over cobblestones or tree roots, or if someone accosts me I can always use it to repel unwanted advances. <grin>

@barbarabeeton @HaraldHanche-Olsen They were, say, slippery at places, and quite unpredictable.

@barbarabeeton I'm glad you're advancing with the hip!

@Raaja well done!! It is a real airplane :P

@Jasper hahaha, I sometimes mix your blue profile pic and ocean (? I like your simplicity

@UlrikeFischer Thanks, fixed!

@UlrikeFischer Can you please write an answer, so I can upvote? texwelt.de/wissen/fragen/23648/…

@HenriMenke I copied the two comments, but I don't have the time to extend them.

@Raaja Too bad I already upvoted it when I first saw it. ;-) (The starburst node shape may be handy for the frame when the plane hits its destination. ;-)

@yo' GoreTeX is off-topic in a LaTeX chat. ;-)