[OS X TeX] Lost floats

Alain Schremmer schremmer.alain at gmail.com
Wed Aug 20 13:50:20 EDT 2014


I have of course no idea of what the problem might be---if only  
because I don't use floats, but when I have an error that does not  
make sense to me, I try to "re-construct".

Yesterday, something like that happened to me: There was a lone dot in  
the middle of a blank space and when I removed it, it wouldn't  
compile!!! And the error was given to be a hundred lines down the pike.

Commenting out the whole section, it would compile. Uncommenting piece  
by piece did not work. Either it compiled or it did not and the error  
was still given to be a hundred lines down the pike. It seemed to be  
the dot and only the dot.

What I finally do in such case is to "re-construct". The idea is to  
*copy only pure text*. Any construction, I redo from scratch. If there  
is, say, an itemization, I insert a blank itemization in which I then  
enter, one by one, pieces of *pure text* from the commented-out  
itemization.

It's a real chore but ... it worked. And I still don't know how that  
lone dot was doing it.

Regards
--schremmer


On Aug 20, 2014, at 12:52 PM, Nitecki, Zbigniew H. wrote:

> It doesn't make sense to me, since it is only certain specific items  
> (one particular equation* environment, but not other, longer ones;   
> one particular \item, but not other longer ones) that cause the  
> problem.  At Nestor Aguilera's suggestion, I tried changing the  
> floats themselves from an [htbp] option to just [p], but this didn't  
> have any effect.
> Z
> On Aug 20, 2014, at 12:18, George Gratzer <gratzer at me.com>
>  wrote:
>
>> Could it be a spacing problem? Delete something and then there is  
>> room for the floats?
>>
>> GG
>>
>> On Aug 20, 2014, at 11:57 AM, Nitecki, Zbigniew H. <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu 
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> OK, I'll hunt for that.  But hen why would it work OK if the  
>>> equation* environment in one place and the one \item (but not the  
>>> others in the same list) is commented out?
>>> On Aug 20, 2014, at 11:37, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com>
>>>  wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Aug 20, 2014, at 9:52 AM, Nitecki, Zbigniew H. <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu 
>>>> > wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Even more curious.  If I comment out the text for the equation*  
>>>>> environment, the floats continue to disappear (so it is not the  
>>>>> actual material inside the equation*).  When I replace the  
>>>>> equation* environment with in-line equation (i.e., $…$), with  
>>>>> the content of the equation* included,  the floats reappear.
>>>>>
>>>>> Now, uncommenting more, later material (including some other  
>>>>> equation* environments), all goes well, until I come to a list:  
>>>>> an "itemize" environment, with several items.  Most of these  
>>>>> items have no effect on the floats (i.e., they don't disappear),  
>>>>> except for a single item
>>>>>> \item The statement that $\Levof{f}{c}\cap R$ is the graph of  
>>>>>> \phiof{x} means that the function
>>>>>> \phiof{x} is uniquely determined by \refer{eqn}{implicitfunct}.
>>>>> (I am no longer trying to replace the macros here with their  
>>>>> definitions, because in the past the content appeared not to be  
>>>>> the problem. ) If the itemize environment has only this item,  
>>>>> the floats disappear.  If I comment this out but include the  
>>>>> other 3-4 items, the floats reappear.  And if then I again  
>>>>> uncomment the single item (leaving the others uncommented)  the  
>>>>> floats disappear again.
>>>>>
>>>>> "What a long, strange trip…"
>>>>> On Aug 20, 2014, at 10:29, "Nitecki, Zbigniew H." <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu 
>>>>> >
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Help!
>>>>>> I have no idea even how to approach this problem.
>>>>>> I am getting lost floats messages (which I did not get before)  
>>>>>> when I include in my text (a few pages before the given floats)  
>>>>>> the following totally innocuous equation:
>>>>>> *************************************************
>>>>>> \begin{equation*}
>>>>>> g_{a}(y_{0}-\delta_{2})<0<g_{a}(y_{0}+\delta_{2})
>>>>>> \end{equation*}
>>>>>> ****************************************************
>>>>>> and when I comment out just this equation the floats no longer  
>>>>>> disappear.
>>>>>> What can possibly be causing this kind of behavior?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Z
>>>>>> On Aug 18, 2014, at 17:23, "Nitecki, Zbigniew H." <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu 
>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I am totally dumbfounded on this.
>>>>>>> I totally commented out everything I had been tinkering with,  
>>>>>>> and the floats worked fine.  Then I started uncommenting  
>>>>>>> bits;  I narrowed at least one source of the problem to the  
>>>>>>> following equation:
>>>>>>>> \begin{equation*}
>>>>>>>> \gsof{a}{\yso-\delts{2}}<0<\gsof{a}{\yso+\delts{2}}
>>>>>>>> \end{equation*}
>>>>>>> and have dredged up all the definitions of the macros used in  
>>>>>>> it:
>>>>>>>> \newcommand{\gsof}[2]{\ensuremath{\subof{g}{#1}{#2}}}%  
>>>>>>>> subscripted function g
>>>>>>>> \newcommand{\subof}[3]{\of{#1_{#2}}{#3}}%subscripted function  
>>>>>>>> of
>>>>>>>> \newcommand{\ys}[1]{\ensuremath{y_{#1}}}%subscripted y
>>>>>>>> \newcommand{\yso}{\ys{0}}
>>>>>>>> \newcommand{\delts}[1]{\ensuremath{\delta_{#1}}}%subscripted  
>>>>>>>> delta
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Nothing unusual that I can see.  But this is at least one of  
>>>>>>> the culprits: when I comment out this equation, the floats all  
>>>>>>> work fine.  When I then uncomment JUST those three lines (the  
>>>>>>> equation) from what just worked, two of the floats get lost.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Huh????
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Z
>>>>>>> On Aug 18, 2014, at 15:33, Herbert Schulz <herbs at wideopenwest.com 
>>>>>>> >
>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Aug 18, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Nitecki, Zbigniew H. <Zbigniew.Nitecki at tufts.edu 
>>>>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I'm encountering a rather disastrous problem for which I  
>>>>>>>>> can't provide a minimal example, since it is the maximal  
>>>>>>>>> structure that seems to be causing it.  I'm asking for  
>>>>>>>>> suggestions on how to trouble shoot it.
>>>>>>>>> Here is the situation:  I am revising a large book project,  
>>>>>>>>> and in particular I have a set of pst-3D pictures set up in  
>>>>>>>>> complicated floats (with sub floats, etc).  These have never  
>>>>>>>>> caused problems until just now.  I was tinkering with some  
>>>>>>>>> text several pages before these floats when I started  
>>>>>>>>> getting the error message "Floats lost".  I tried to track  
>>>>>>>>> down what was causing this problem, and ultimately commented  
>>>>>>>>> out the whole section of text (which has no direct  
>>>>>>>>> connection to the floats in question--they are in a  
>>>>>>>>> different section  ) which resulted in still getting the  
>>>>>>>>> error message, but the floats which get lost seem to vary  
>>>>>>>>> with what I comment out in the text.  (That is, some lost  
>>>>>>>>> ones reappear, but others disappear) I have no idea how to  
>>>>>>>>> proceed from here, since anything that might have been  
>>>>>>>>> embedded in the text I was tinkering with has been commented  
>>>>>>>>> out, and before I started tinkering there was no error  
>>>>>>>>> message.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I seemed to recall that in the previous version of this book  
>>>>>>>>> project I ran into some problems having to do with memory--I  
>>>>>>>>> think--and it was resolved by following each of these  
>>>>>>>>> megafloats with the line "\afterpage{\clearpage}".  I found  
>>>>>>>>> one of these commented out in my present version and  
>>>>>>>>> restored it--again changing which floats get lost, but not  
>>>>>>>>> the fact that some are always being lost.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Zbigniew Nitecki
>>>>>>>>> Department of Mathematics
>>>>>>>>> Tufts University
>>>>>>>>> Medford, MA 02155
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Howdy,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> My first guess (and it's only a guess) is that LaTeX can't  
>>>>>>>> find an ``acceptable'' location for the floats because of the  
>>>>>>>> added text. I'm not sure how you fix that but others here  
>>>>>>>> should be able to help.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Good Luck,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Herb Schulz
>>>>>>>> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Zbigniew Nitecki
>>>>>>> Department of Mathematics
>>>>>>> Tufts University
>>>>>>> Medford, MA 02155
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Zbigniew Nitecki
>>>>>> Department of Mathematics
>>>>>> Tufts University
>>>>>> Medford, MA 02155
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Zbigniew Nitecki
>>>>> Department of Mathematics
>>>>> Tufts University
>>>>> Medford, MA 02155
>>>>
>>>> Howdy,
>>>>
>>>> Now it's beginning to sound like a list environment of some sort  
>>>> that isn't being closed; i.e., no \end{...}.
>>>>
>>>> Good Luck,
>>>>
>>>> Herb Schulz
>>>> (herbs at wideopenwest dot com)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>> Zbigniew Nitecki
>>> Department of Mathematics
>>> Tufts University
>>> Medford, MA 02155
>>>
>>> telephones:
>>> Office    (617)627-3843
>>> Dept.    (617)627-3234
>>> Dept. fax    (617)627-3966
>>> http://www.tufts.edu/~znitecki/
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------- Please Consult the Following Before Posting -----------
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>>
>>
>> ----------- Please Consult the Following Before Posting -----------
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>
>
> Zbigniew Nitecki
> Department of Mathematics
> Tufts University
> Medford, MA 02155
>
> telephones:
> Office    (617)627-3843
> Dept.    (617)627-3234
> Dept. fax    (617)627-3966
> http://www.tufts.edu/~znitecki/
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------- Please Consult the Following Before Posting -----------
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> List Reminders and Etiquette: http://email.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
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