Article 72 of ucam.mlist.texhax: From: owner-texhax-digest@nottingham.ac.UK Subject: TeXhax Digest V1997 #5 Date: 27 May 97 12:00:06 GMT TeXhax Digest Tuesday, 27 May 1997 Volume 1997 : Number 005 (incorporating UKTeX Digest) Today's Topics: multi-page tables/arrays passing a parameter to latex Numbering figures in LaTeX Re: Two Columns for two "documents" Hanging punctuation Re: Spell Checker for Windows Users who TeX ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert Bruner Date: Mon, 14 Apr 97 12:48:48 EDT Subject: multi-page tables/arrays Dear TeXperts, I have 140 tables/arrays (I am willing to use either), of varying sizes, from 1/6 of a page to 4 or 5 pages in length, in a document I am producing. I would like them to appear one after another with only a small break between them. The behavior of the array and table environments makes this difficult, however. I need an array-like environment which would split the array across pages as necessary, and would preferably add a note saying "continued" at the bottom and a header labelling the array at the top of each continuation page. The array environment (and table also) insists on putting the entire array on one page. I have manually inserted the end array- begin array commands to break it, but this is tedious and doesn't produce optimal results. I could use tabbing, but would not get the headers or the "continued" notes (except with manual insertion of them). I am using AMSLaTeX, and would be willing to switch to LaTeX or LaTeX2e to solve this. Learning plain TeX or AMSTex to do this would take longer, but if that's what it takes, so be it. Robert Bruner Department of Mathematics Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan USA 48202 rrb@math.wayne.edu ------------------------------ From: "Cliff Bergman" Date: Mon, 14 Apr 1997 12:42:37 CDT Subject: passing a parameter to latex Hello, I have recently converted from amstex to latex2e. I work on a UNIX system. I have a question. I would like to selectively load a package depending on a parameter that I pass on the command line. This seems to work: \documentclass{article} \iffoo \usepackage{xyzpackage} \fi \begin{document} and then the command line: latex '\newif\iffoo \foofalse \input testfile' will run the file and will cause the package not to be loaded. This is only slightly unaesthetic, since I have to define the switch as well as set it on the command line. A better solution would be to create my own format file containing the switch. However I have been unsuccessful at creating a format built on top of latex2e. (I tried the 'mylatex' method, but it did not work.) Does anyone know how create such a format file, or does anyone know of an obscure switch sitting around in latex that I could 'borrow' (at my own risk!) for this purpose? Or is there another way to implement my scheme? Thanks in advance, cliff bergman cbergman@iastate.edu ------------------------------ From: Mona.Jacobsen@termo.unit.no Date: Thu, 17 Apr 97 13:17:54 +0200 Subject: Numbering figures in LaTeX Is there a possibility to number figures and tables in report style with one level (Figure 1, Figure 2 etc...) and not (Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2 etc...) LaTeX version: This is TeX, C Version 3.141 (artfl_97.tex LaTeX Version 2.09 <25 March 1992> BibTeX version: This is BibTeX, C Version 0.99c Mona Jacobsen ------------------------------ From: Jonathan Fine Date: Fri, 18 Apr 97 18:13 BST Subject: Re: Two Columns for two "documents" This is a response to a query in TeXHax. 18 April 1997 Dear TeXhax, David Cook (D.Cook@sheffield.ac.uk) asks: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Is there a cls file or a package which enables one to generate a document in which the pages are two columns over the whole document but the contents of the two columns are basically two different source files? - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Briefly, the answer to this question is no, and for reasons connected to the architecture of TeX (the program) and LaTeX. It is not possible, with \input, to read a bit from one file and then a bit from another, alternately. This is the way things are. It is possible, with \read, to alternate between two (or more) files, but this would have the side-effect of rendering dysfunctional all macros that depend on changing of \catcode's. My advice is to use some external program or utility to weave together the two different source files, and then use this new file as the input to TeX (or LaTeX). He also writes: - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The existing multicolumn methods are basically for re-formatting a single continuous whole and I guess could be made to do what I want but it would be tremendously inconvenient keeping things in step. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Suppose that the \input problem has been solved. Forming the two files into two separate galleys should not be very difficult, but deciding on page breaks will be hard. Here is one way to do this. First set each file by itself, at the column measure. Print out the results, and compare. On the basis of this, decide where the page breaks should be. Now use \vadjust or the like to force these page breaks (say in conjunction with \vsplit) in the source file, and use a custom output routine to assemble the pages up. Whatever algorithm one uses, one will probably have to resort to such hand tuning to get a decent result. So let that be the first `algorithm'. I'm sorry that there is probably not a LaTeX package for doing this, so far as I know. It would probably take a wizard to write one. sincerely Jonathan Fine Mailing Address: 203 Coldhams Lane, Cambridge, CB1 3HY Telephone: 01223 215389 ------------------------------ From: Marcus Vinicius Mesquita de Sousa Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 20:29:56 -0300 Subject: Hanging punctuation For TeXperts only! In appendix D from the TeXbook, p. 394, DEK gives some macros in order to get TeX typesetting with hanging punctuation. With some minor modifications and inclusions (given in the end of this mail), these macros work fine with LaTeX2e, except for the hyphen! According to DEK, you shoud have a special font with a zero width \hyphenchar and that is not the case with the font I use (Stempel Garamond). Well, with the macro \hyphdisc \newdimen\hyphenhang \setbox0=\hbox{-} \hyphenhang=\wd0 \def\hyphdisc{\ifhmode\allowhyphens% \discretionary{-\kern-2\hyphenhang\kern\hyphenhang}% {}{}\allowhyphens\fi} I can get hanging hyphens, but I must introduce them where they appear after a first LaTeX running via the macro \hyphdisc . So, for example blablabla\hyphdisc blablabla blablabla gives blablabla- blablabla blablabla My question is: is there any way to assign the macro \hyphdisc to the \defaulthyphenchar ?? Marcus Sousa State University of Campinas E-mail: sousa@ifi.unicamp.br ********************************************** % File hang.sty % File for ``hangin punctuation'' for LaTeX % Most macros taken from TheTeXbook, p. 395 % with some minor modifications and inclusions to work with LaTeX \makeatletter \def\allowhyphens{\penalty\@M\hskip\z@skip} \makeatother % Period \newdimen\periodhang \setbox0=\hbox{.} \periodhang=\wd0 \def\period{\ifhmode.\kern-\periodhang\kern\periodhang% \else\string.\fi} \catcode`.=\active \let.=\period % comma \newdimen\commahang \setbox0=\hbox{,} \commahang=\wd0 \def\comma{\ifhmode,\kern-\commahang\kern\commahang% \else\string,\fi} \catcode`,=\active \let,=\comma \commahang=0.2em \def\commakern{\kern-\commahang} % colon \newdimen\colonhang \setbox0=\hbox{:} \colonhang=\wd0 \def\colon{\ifhmode:\kern-\colonhang\kern\colonhang% \else\string:\fi} \catcode`:=\active \let:=\colon % semicolon \newdimen\semicolonhang \setbox0=\hbox{;} \semicolonhang=\wd0 \def\semicolon{\ifhmode;\kern-\semicolonhang\kern\semicolonhang% \else\string;\fi} \catcode`;=\active \let;=\semicolon % Interrogation mark \newdimen\imarkhang \setbox0=\hbox{?} \imarkhang=\wd0 \def\imark{\ifhmode?\kern-\imarkhang\kern\imarkhang% \else\string?\fi} \catcode`?=\active \let?=\imark % Exclamation mark \newdimen\emarkhang \setbox0=\hbox{!} \emarkhang=\wd0 \def\emarkkern{\kern-\emarkhang} \def\emark{\ifhmode!\kern-\emarkhang\kern\emarkhang% \else\string!\fi} \catcode`!=\active \let!=\emark % Definition of \hyphdisc as a control word: \newdimen\hyphenhang \setbox0=\hbox{-} \hyphenhang=\wd0 \def\hyphdisc{\ifhmode\allowhyphens\discretionary{-\kern-2\hyphenhang\kern\hyphenhang}{}{}\allowhyphens\fi} % Special treatment for quotes \newdimen\quotehang \setbox0=\hbox{`} \quotehang=\wd0 \newdimen\qquotehang \setbox0=\hbox{``} \qquotehang=\wd0 \def\lqq{``} \def\rqq{''} \def\rquote{'\kern-\quotehang\kern\quotehang} \def\lquote{\ifhmode\kern\quotehang\vadjust{}\else\leavevmode\fi% \kern-\quotehang`\allowhyphens} \catcode`'=\active \def'{\futurelet\next\rqtest} \catcode``=\active \def`{\futurelet\next\lqtest} \def\rqtest{\ifx\next'\let\next=\rquotes\else\let\next=\rquote\fi\next} \def\lqtest{\ifx\next`\let\next=\lquotes\else\let\next=\lquote\fi\next} \def\rquotes'{\rqq\kern-\qquotehang\kern\qquotehang} \def\lquotes`{\ifhmode\kern\qquotehang\vadjust{}% \else\leavevmode\fi% \kern-\qquotehang\lqq\allowhyphens} ------------------------------ From: Jaime Cuevas Dermody Date: Thu, 01 May 1997 04:06:47 +0100 Subject: Re: Spell Checker for Windows Users who TeX Hello, I am an experienced TeXer who uses plain TeX via the commercial YandY TeX package. There must be a lot of TeX users who face the same problems as I and whose productivity would be enhansed if they could be solved efficiently. I was browsing through your Web Site and got to a page on spell checkers, where I found recommendations on spell checkers for people using UNIX, Macintoish,DOS, and even VMS. But I, like 90% of the PC users and most TeXers, use Windows 95. What recommendations do you have for spell checkers that work well in a Windows 95 enviornment. While we are on the topic of programs to use with TeX, what is there for footnotes. I now use a combersome big macro called Eplain, that has it origins in Gnu. I only use the footnote part of that macro. It gives me easy control over footnotes, e.g., I can control the vertical space between sucessive footnotes on the same page. But it always puts a little extra baselineskip just above the last line of each footnote. Six years ago, I spent many hours trying to write my own footnote little macro, by modifying the original TeX instruction for \footnote, but could never get it to run. I use Microsoft Word and its spell checker to prepare ASCII TeX files, but have found no way to get it to avoid leading \ characters. I would actually prefer for a spell checker to recognize and remember lead \ characters so I could detect errors in TeX commands, via-a-via an accumulated dictionary of TeX commands. But Word and most editos do not store \. I would gladly switch to a good quality simple ASCII text editor or another word processor, if I could find one that worked well with a good spell checker. I tried Epsilon and found it to be very cumbersome and inappropriate. It is optimal only for programmers with near repititions of large code sections. It requires far to many key strokes and attention per page to type a TeX file. I would like to be able to control the size and style of font in the edit window of the text editor, so I can take advantage of my 1600X1200-pixel 21-inch monitor. Word does at least that. I use PicTeX alot and am very frustrated that I cannot rotate text so that it can follow a slanted line or a curve. I may have to draw my diagrams in Adobe Illustrator and then use encapulated postscript to insert TeX text along lines or curves. Unfortunately that is a lot of work and requires me to become adept a Adobe Illustrator, which is like getting married. Is there a TeX Cad program that will allow me to draw functions and place labels along the functions. About five years ago, I tried a TeX CAD macro and found it far too primitive. As I recall it came with EM TeX.tug. I downloaded pSTricks and found I could not TeX any of its files. It has @ characters where I am used to seeing \ charaters. The signal not to try to use it came form the note that only the part of the manual pertaining to the latest change was included, and that one need ot get all the manuals of previuous version to have a complete manual. That is a scarry to invite thousands of to search for the same set of manuals instead of one person, who knows far better where they all are, manking them available for downloading. I had a nice talk with the author of TeXDraw and found that macro to be a great package oriented to Unix rather than Windows 95. Cheers, Jaime - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Jaime Cuevas Dermody, Senior Lecturer University of Strathclyde Department of Accounting and Finance 100 Cathedral St., Glasgow G4 0LN, Scotland PHONE: 44(0)141 548-3891 FAX: 552-3547 HOME: 159 Maxwell Drive PHONE: 44(0)141 419-0300 Glasgow G41 5AE, Scotland FAX: 419-0301 Do not dial the (0)s from outside the U.K. MOBILE: (0)385 901-226 E-Mails: j.c.dermody@strath.ac.uk dermody@xjcd.prestel.co.uk ------------------------------ About TeXhax... 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