******************************************************************************* * * * TTTTTTT X X M M GGGGGG A Mostly Unofficial * * T X X MM MM G Publication for Users * * T EEEEEEE XXX M M M M A G GG Of the TeX Computer * * T E X X M M M A A G G Typesetting System. * * T EEEE X X M M M AAAAA GGGGGG * * E A A Volume 1, Number 3 * * EEEEEEE A A Distribution: 175 or so... * * * ******************************************************************************* March 25, 1987 Contents: \preview......................................................................1 The Resume Macro..............................................................2 Introduction to LaTeX: Part one...............................................3 The Toolbox...................................................................4 __1 \preview{I'm on my way I'm making it...} Hi there! Those of you who pay much attention to the beginning of this magazine (in the neighborhood of the masthead) will have already noticed that distribution has already broken into three figures. As much as I'd like to credit this to a fine job of editing the mag, it's really because I *thought* I had posted a notice about TeXMaG on TeXHAX in December (I didn't) and a recent plea to TeXHAX for contributions to the ToolBox resulted in a sudden doubling of my readership (and two contributions). Exciting things in this issue are: a resume macro, just in time for the job-hungry class of `87; the first installment in the promised introduction to LaTeX (which will result in a nice manual suitable for framing being produced sometime late this year---say October, but don't hold me to that); and the ever-present ToolBox. By the way, I'm always receptive to article submissions... G'day -Don Hosek or the long version: __2 The Resume Macro for Plain TeX By Don Hosek One of the most common word processing needs among college students is the ability to type a resume. The resume macro following this article seeks to fill this need. To use the macro, the first line of your file should be \input resumemac After this you should enter the heading information. The default is to center the name, address, and date at the top of the page. You may select a different style with the commands \leftheading (left justified heading), \rightheading (right justified), or \specialheading (the name and address are printed across the top of the page with a rule below them, and the date right justified on the following line). You should specify your name using \name{your name here}, followed by your address in \address{...} with the lines of the address separated by \\s. For example, \address{Platt Campus Center\\ Harvey Mudd College\\ Claremont, CA} Finally, you should have the date specified with \date{the date} or \date\today if you want today's date on the resume. The body of the resume consists of repeated \tag...\endtag pairs. You enter each item on the resume with a \tag command as follows: \tag{Education} Paragraph(s) about your education go here. . . \endtag TeX will automatically break the lines and format the text for you. If you want to include a list of dates and places (for example places you have worked, you may enter them as: \(Dates go here)Wherever it was that you worked goes here, ended with a double-backslash.\\ You may use as many \(...)...\\ constructions as you like in the information text for each tag. The only restriction is that \par is not permitted inside of each item. You may need to modify the fonts to conform to your system's selection of fonts and magnifications. %%%----------Cut Here------------------------------------------------------ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% % % Resume macro file for plain.TeX. % % To Use: % \input resumemac % \magnification=\magstep0 (Or whatever sice is desired) % \name{Your Name Here} % \address % Type your address % In this space. % \endaddress % \date{Either type it yourself, or use \today} % \tag{Whatever the category is} % Information for this item... % . % . % . % \endtag % Repeat \tag...\endtag as necessary. % Inside of \tag...\endtag, you may use \(dates)what happened then\\ for % itemized lists. % % To set the heading format say: % \centerheading (for centered headings) % \leftheading (for left justified headings) % \rightheading (for right justified headings) or % \specialheading (for a special ``letterhead'' style heading.) % Before you enter the heading commands % % Use \magnification to modify text sizes. % % Written By Don Hosek % From TeXMaG, Vol. 1, No. 3 % %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%% %%% Initializations... %%% \newskip\interTAGskip \newbox\TAGbox \newbox\INFObox \newdimen\TAGboxhsize \newdimen\INFOboxhsize \newdimen\INFOboxlength \newdimen\DATEhsize \newdimen\DATEINFOhsize \hsize=6.5truein \vsize=9.0truein \interTAGskip=12pt \parindent=0pt \TAGboxhsize=1.0truein \INFOboxhsize=5.4truein % Take care that TAGboxhsize + % INFOboxhsize = hsize - 0.1in \DATEhsize=.75truein \DATEINFOhsize=4.3truein % Take care that DATEhsize + % DATEINFOhsize is <= % INFOboxhsize \let\wheretoputit=c \let\\=\cr \nopagenumbers %%% %%% Fonts... %%% Change am.. to cm.. if you are using that series of fonts. %%% System wizards may modify this section to conform to system needs and %%% user desires. %%% \font\NAMEfont=ambx10 scaled 1440 \font\TAGfont=ambxsl10 \font\smallADDRESSfont=amr9 %%% %%% The top macros... %%% %%% First off is the ever-popular \today macro... %%% (cribbed from LaTeX's Letter format.) (They probably cribbed it from Knuth %%% I'm sure.) %%% \def\today{\ifcase\month\or January\or February\or March\or April\or May\or June\or July\or August\or September\or October\or November\or December\fi \ \number\day, \number\year} %%% %%% \specialline is a special version of \line that permits you to select %%% centered, right or left adjusting via an option in []s. %%% \def\specialline[#1]#2{ % Why does this look like LaTeX? \ifx#1l\leftline{#2} \else\ifx#1r\rightline{#2} \else\centerline{#2} \fi \fi} %%% %%% \name is pretty straightforward. %%% \def\name#1{\specialline[\wheretoputit]{\NAMEfont#1}} %%% %%% \address isn't. It uses a \halign to line up the address where it should %%% be... Note that this file sets \\=\cr so that all the little kiddies who %%% use LaTeX can pretend that this is LaTeX. (If I get a chance, a LaTeX .sty %%% file *is* coming...) %%% \def\address#1{\ifx\wheretoputit r\let\rskip=\hfil \let\lskip=\hfill \else\ifx\wheretoputit l\let\rskip=\hfill \let\lskip=\relax \else\let\rskip=\hfill \let\lskip=\hfill \fi \fi \halign{\line{\lskip##\rskip}\cr#1\crcr}} %%% %%% \date. To specify today, type: \date\today %%% \def\date#1{\specialline[\wheretoputit]{#1}} %%% %%% Now for the meat and potatoes macro: \tag...\endtag %%% %%% \tag %%% \def\tag#1{\def\TAGinfo{#1} % Communication to \endtag \setbox\INFObox=\vbox\bgroup\hsize=\INFOboxhsize} %%% %%% \endtag %%% \def\endtag{\egroup \vskip\interTAGskip \setbox\TAGbox=\vbox{\hsize=\TAGboxhsize \raggedright\hyphenchar\TAGfont=-1 \tolerance=20000 % Don't get uptight about lines. \hbadness=10000 % And don't talk about it either. \TAGfont \TAGinfo \vfill} \tabskip=0.1in \valign{##\vfill\cr \box\TAGbox\cr \box\INFObox\cr}} %%% %%% Now that wasn't too bad, now was it? %%% Next we create the \dates...\enddates macros to make a few other things %%% easier %%% %%% %%% \(dates) %%% whatever happened during that time\\ %%% \def\(#1)#2\\{\par {\tabskip=0pt %change tabskip only inside this macro. \vskip4pt plus 2pt minus3pt \valign{##\vfill\cr \vbox{\hsize=\DATEhsize\leftskip=0pt plus1fill#1}\cr \noalign{\hskip2em} \vbox{\hsize=\DATEINFOhsize#2}\cr \noalign{\hfill}}} \par} %%% %%% Heading options: %%% %%% \leftheading %%% \def\leftheading{\let\wheretoputit=l} %%% %%% \rightheading %%% \def\rightheading{\let\wheretoputit=r} %%% %%% \centerheading %%% \def\centerheading{\let\wheretoputit=c} %%% %%% \specialheading %%% \def\specialheading{\let\wheretoputit=r \def\name##1{\def\NAME{##1}} \def\address##1{{\def\\{, } \line{{\NAMEfont\NAME}\hfil{\smallADDRESSfont##1}}} \smallskip \hrule \smallskip}} %%%------Cut here again---------------------------------------------------- __3 An Introduction To LaTeX By Don Hosek Part One: Everything You Will Ever Need To Know Why use LaTeX? It doesn't do anything that can't be done with plain TeX (although some things might take more effort), and it can't do some things that can be done with plain TeX. The answer is because of LaTeX's use of the *document style*. By setting parameters of the format independently of the document, changes in the formatting of the paper, article, book, or whatever are made much simpler. Also, much of the formatting is ``hidden'' from the user, keeping him from worrying about the details. Now that you're sold on LaTeX, let's get down to the details. (Note to people familiar to TeX: skip this paragraph, you'll be bored.) TeX (and LaTeX) react a little bit differently to characters typed at the keyboard than you would expect them too. When you type quotation marks in your manuscript, you should not use the " key on your keyboard. Since books actually use different types of quotation marks at the beginning and end of a quote, so should you. On your terminal's keyboard, there should be two keys marked ` and ' (If you can't find these keys, look for somebody who knows these things, and ask them). These are the keys that you will use to type quotation marks---for the opening quotation marks, type ``, and for closing quotation marks, type ''. Single quotation marks can be obtained similarly using ` and '. You should also be aware that there are three dashes used in typesetting. A hyphen (type -) is used for words like mother-in-law; an en dash (type --) is often used for ranges of page numbers, and so forth, such as pages 21--25; and an em dash (type ---) is the punctuation mark used to indicate a pause in a sentence---like this. A few characters can not be used in ordinary text. They are: # $ % ^ & ~ _ ^ \ { } In addition, the following are permitted only in math mode (more on this later): | < > (The people who already knew the information in the last paragraph can come back now.) Now that you've dealt with how TeX deals with information typed at the keyboard, you're ready to start using LaTeX. Create a file using your system's editor with a filetype of ``tex'' (ask a local expert about this if you aren't sure of how to do it). In it, put the following: \documentstyle{article} \begin{document} It doesn't really matter if you put extra spaces at the beginning of a line or in between words---\LaTeX\ will ignore them. If you wish to start a new paragraph, leave a blank line. Like that one. The paragraph indentation will be handled automatically. If you wish to ``footnote'' text, it is very simple.\footnote{The footnote number will even be supplied.} \end{document} You can ask a local expert how to run LaTeX (sorry it can't be handled here---it varies from system to system). The play-by-play of what is going on in the file will be covered here. The first line of the file is \documentstyle{article}. This selects the style that your text will be printed in. Their are at least two document styles that exist on all systems: article and report. (Your system may have others, ask a local expert.) (Aren't local experts wonderful?) You could have specified additional options on the \documentstyle command. For example, by default, your paper was set in ten point type. If you wanted to use twelve point type you could have typed \documentstyle[12pt]{article} (or \documentstyle[11pt]{article} for eleven point type.) If you want to use two options, you may specify them by separating them with commas; for example, 12 point type in two columns may be obtained by typing \documentstyle[12pt,twocolumn]{article}. Next in the file is \begin{document}. This tells LaTeX that the text of your paper is about to begin. You should have no text before the \begin{document}. This matches the \end{document} at the end of the paper. Everything after \end{document} is ignored as well. \LaTeX is the command for typesetting the LaTeX logo. At this point, it is worth noting that when LaTeX reads the input file, it ignores any spaces following a command, like \LaTeX, that ends with a letter. Therefore, if you want to follow \LaTeX with a space, you use the \ (backslash followed by a space) command, which wholeheartedly convinces LaTeX that \you do indeed want a space. This is not always the case, however; you may want to end a sentence with LaTeX, in which case, you do *not* want to type \LaTeX\ . since this will generate an unwanted space after LaTeX giving something that looks like ``LaTeX .'' Finally, as you have seen, footnoting is fairly simple. All you need to do is type \footnote{with the footnote text inside of braces like it is here.} LaTeX will automatically give the footnote a number and place it at the bottom of the current page. Armed with this information, you know now everything you need to typeset most simple documents using LaTeX. ----------------------------------------------- Editors note: Your comments are strongly desired on this introduction to LaTeX. Should it include more information? Less information? Is it written clearly? How can it be improved? Is the information to basic? Too advanced? Let me know. When the series has reached its completion, a manual containing a nicely edited version of everything said in the articles will be made available through the listserv fileserver (yes, I hope to have something set up. Soon, I hope.) __4 *The ToolBox* This month's toys come from Barbara Beeton (or to some gateways: ... hopefully the latter will be obsolete after March 31, (I can only hope)). Her submissions are variant ``laps,'' which need to be seen to be understood. %%%----------Cut Here------------------------------------------------------ %%% File: Laps.TeX \catcode`\@=11 % Let's pretend @ is a letter % Vertical `laps'; cf. \llap and \rlap \long\def\ulap#1{\vbox to \z@{\vss#1}} \long\def\dlap#1{\vbox to \z@{#1\vss}} % And centered horizontal and vertical `laps' \def\xlap#1{\hbox to \z@{\hss#1\hss}} \long\def\ylap#1{\vbox to \z@{\vss#1\vss}} % And a `lap' centered on its midpoint \long\def\zlap#1{\ylap{\xlap{#1}}} \catcode`\@=12 % That's enough pretending for one day. %%%----------Cut Here Again------------------------------------------------ If anybody can come up with a *useful* application for any of these bizaare laps, I'd sure like to see it. -Ed. __5 TeXMaG is an independantly published electronic magazine available free of charge to all interested parties reachable by electronic mail. It is published monthly on the last weekend of each month, except when conditions prevent publication. Subscription requests should be sent to Don Hosek or send the following message to LISTSERV@BYUADMIN: SUBS TEXMAG-L Your_Full_Name. Back issues are available from Don Hosek . Article submissions, contributions for the Toolbox, and letters to the editor are always welcome and should be sent to . Other publications of interest to TeX users are: TeXHAX. Arpanet mailing list for persons with questions, suggestions, etc.. about TeX, LaTeX, metafont and related programs. Submissions for this list should be sent to . BITNET users may subscribe by sending the following command (as an interactive message or as the first line of a mail message) to LISTSERV@TAMVM1: SUBS TEX-L your_full_name. The list is peer-linked to other listserves in the United States and Europe. Internet subscribers may subscribe by sending a request to . The TeX-L mailing list is a ``hybrid;'' i. e., it is both an ARPAnet redistribution, and a BITNET discussion list. Submissions for TeX-L (only --- they will _not_ be forwarded to TeXHAX) may be sent to TeX-L@TAMVM1 Unix-TeX. Arpanet mailing list specifically for users of TeX on the Unix operating system. Submissions for this list should be sent to . Requests to be added or deleted from the mailing list should be sent to . TUGBoat. A publication by the TeX Users Group. An excellant reference for TeX users. For more information about joining TUG or subscribing to TUGBoat send (real) mail to: TeX Users Group c/o American Mathematical Society P. O. Box 9506 Providence, RI 02940-9506, USA Remember, there is no apostrophe in TeX Users Group. Special thanks to Steve Howes of BYU for permitting me to use the BYU list- serve. ------------------------------------------------------------