[OS X TeX] Some beginner questions

[Ross Moore]

Hello Don,

On 07/05/2010, at 10:59 AM, Ferguson, Don wrote:

> Documentclass specification:
> ===========================
> I've changed the \documentclass line to
>
> \documentclass[12pt,fleqn,leqno,draft]{amsbook}
>
> and although there is no complaint about «amsbook» I'm just  
> guessing that there is such a document class. Seems to be the case  
> because in the .log file there was a warning about «draft» and  
> «\includegraphics» having some sort of conflict. Eventually the  
> draft will be deleted, and, at this time, I'm not using the
>    \includegraphics
> thing at this point.

In that case you can dispense with the 'draft' option.
With computers as fast as they are these days, you never really
need it anymore anyway.

It was only ever a way to avoid doing some of the most time-consuming
operations until the final run, to pull all the bits together.
Nowadays it only saves a few seconds on huge jobs having 100s
of pages.

>
>
> The Address lines:
> =================
> I wanted the author's address set up as three lines, so the source  
> reads:
>
> \address{first line\\
>          second line\\
>          email address}
>
> But when typeset, everthing is in uppercase including «email  
> address» and the address is presented on a single line. Why are the  
> newlines ignored?

\\ is not equivalent to "newline".
It is just a macro name that can be linked to anything you want.

In the "amsart" style, when addresses are placed at the end of
the document, the AMS don't want to have the address over many lines.
(This could result in extra pages in their publications.)
So they make it do nothing, or perhaps a single space.

To bypass this, you could try:

>>> \address{first line\newline\indent
>>>          second line\newline\indent
>>>          email address}



> Is it possible to specify a mix of uppercase and lowercase? Does  
> \verbatim come in use here?

This is a possible hack that seems to work:

>>> \address{{\normalsize\rm first line\strut\newline\indent
>>>          second line\strut\newline\indent
>>>          email address}}


The purpose of the  \strut  is to force wider line-separation,
since the AMS uses \footnotesize (or similar) at this point.
Try it without the '\strut's to see the difference.

>
>
> The Date line:
> =============
> Under the address, the date was specified, but it never appears on  
> the title page. Does not matter whether I use
>
> \date{\today}
>
> or
>
> \date{6 April 2010}
>
> in either case, no date appears???

Again, this is because the AMS do not put in the date
with their printed publications.
Each journal has a date of issue, which applies to
all the articles; so there is no point in putting it
on each one individually.

>
>
> The guillemets guys
> ===================
> I like to use these « and » guys, but when the relevant codes
>
> \guillemotleft   and   \guillemotright
>
> were employed, the .log file complained about T1 encoding.  
> Following Tobias Oetiker, I put
>
> \usepackage{T1]{fontenc}
>
> in the preamble. The « and » guys now appear. Is that the proper  
> solution?

Seems fine to me.


>
>
> Wide Bar Over
> =============
> If A and B represent points, then in geometry one often uses  
> something akin to
>
>    _A B_
>
> except that the underline should be an overline (overbar).

\overline{AB}


> Although \bar{...} works well in the case of a single character,  
> i.e., \bar{A}; it is inadequate in someting like
>
>    \bar{AB}  or \bar{A\,B}
>
> Since \widehat{AB} and \widetilde{AB} work well, I wonder if I've  
> missed something!?!?!?

Have you examined any tables of available commands?


>
>
> Vector Drawings
> ===============
> I've been reading Oetiker's manual on LaTeX2e and somewhat  
> overpowered by his discussion of "Producing Mathematical Graphics".  
> I don't know Mac software yet. Is there not some vector drawing  
> program that could be used on the iMac and the resulting drawings  
> saved as EPS or PostScript or ....? If there is, I'd appreciate a  
> hint. Need to be able to create simple, coloured drawings to  
> augment my work.

There are lots of possibilities.
What you choose will depend upon the extent to which
you want to use just point-&-click interfaces,
or whether you want to programable thingies.
Do your diagrams need labels?
Can you use the same fonts as in the body text?
How to position superscripts and subscripts, and get
the spacing correct between math symbols and variable names?
  etc. etc.

You will try one program, and get used to what it can do,
then realise that it doesn't do enough of what you really want.
Then you'll try another and appreiate its strengths and
weaknesses.

Eventually you may end up using Xy-pic or Tikz .
After that you'll probably not switch again.
Both have rather large learning curves, but can produce
wonderful outputs, in a fully programmable way.

>
>
> Trial.aux interference
> ======================
> I had a source file Trial.tex in which various simple constructs  
> were being tried out. When I opened Trial.tex earlier today, it  
> would not typeset. The complaint from the .log file referred to  
> Trial.aux and complained that
>
> \begin{document}
>
> was missing. Well, in Trial.tex the line «\begin{document}» was  
> evident! Finally I noticed the reference to Trial.aux! I also  
> observed that when Trial.aux was opened, the controlling process  
> was ConTeXt not LaTeX!!! So I deleted Trial.aux and then Trial.tex  
> could be typeset. I've noticed the complaint
>
>    "the line \begin{document} is missing"
>
> before. Is this a symptom of some dumb beginner error? What's the  
> error?

This occurs either:

    1. if you process with LaTeX  a document not written for LaTeX;

or

   2.  your coding tries to put something on the page
       before \begin{document} has been encountered.

    In LaTeX *all* actually content must come *after*
    \begin{document} .

    The part before this is called the "preamble".
    It is used to *declare* information, such as what
    extra packages to load, your own personal commands,
    and Metadata -- such as author, title, address, etc.


>
>
> Inserting Ascii text into TeXShop
> =================================
> For practice, I wanted to typeset a 16 page doc that I had created  
> with the DTP program PageStream. The file that PageStream created  
> was «Mechanics.pgs». So the following was done:
>
> (1) Open a template in TeXShop which typesets okay. Save it as  
> «Mechanics.tex» in a directory «Mechanics».
>
> (2) Create an Ascii version of the PageStream file «Mechanics.pgs»  
> and name the Ascii version «Mechanics.txt». Move «Mechamics.txt»  
> from the Amiga over to the iMac and place it in the same directory  
> «Mechanics».
>
> (3) Open «Mechanics.tex» on the iMac. Put the text cursor on a  
> blank line above the «\end{document}» line.
>
> Now what? First I dragged the icon for «Mechanics.txt» into the  
> TeXShop window. That did not work as a line
>
> \input{«complicated & strange path to Mechanics.txt»}

   You shouldn't need the braces.

>
> appeared but no Ascii text.
>
> Well eventually I clumsily copied the Ascii text into the TeXShop  
> window, but surely there is a neat way to do this!!!

What's clumsy about  Select All, then Copy and Paste?

>  I tried using
>
>    \input{«full path to the file Mechanics.txt»}

If the path is accurate then it should have found the file for \input .
But you don't need a full path. Just a relative one will do.
Indeed just the basename, if it is in the same directory:
   so  \input Mechanics.txt
ought to be sufficient.

Try without the braces if it doesn't work with them.

>
> but that was no better.
>
> Should I have started off with a PDF or PostScript version of  
> «Mechanics.pgs»?

That depends upon just what is in that file, and what you want to see.
It it is the ASCII programming source, then you'll need a kind
of verbatim environment. There are several packages that do this.
e.g.  listings  and  verbatim  and  fancyverb .

  verbatim.sty   defines a command  \verbatiminput .
Check its documentation  (e.g., with  texdoc verbatim  in a Terminal  
window)
to see how to use it.


>
>
> Any enlightenment will be appreciated.


Hope this helps,

	Ross

>
>
> Cheers   Don  (Green Dragon)
> -- 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ross Moore                                       ross at maths.mq.edu.au
Mathematics Department                           office: E7A-419
Macquarie University                             tel: +61 (0)2 9850 8955
Sydney, Australia  2109                          fax: +61 (0)2 9850 8114
------------------------------------------------------------------------