ISSN 1108-4170 Τεῦχος 6, Απρίλιος 2001 TEX Σ ΑΥΤΟ ΤΟ ΤΕΥΧΟΣ : Ω ΕνTEXνα& ἄtexνα...iii Σηµειώσειςτοῦτυπογράφου...iv Sören Hindsholm L A TEXinsecondaryschools... 1 Dag Langmyhr AnalternativetoL A TEXforbeginners... 5 Marcel Oliver MultilingualsupportinL A TEX3: Whataretheissues?...19 SivanToledo TypesettingHebrewwithL A TEX...39 TEXνικές:Αλλαγήεπικεφαλίδων...57 Βιϐλίο-Παρουσίαση... 61 L A TEX babel dvips Μία περιοδικὴ ἔκδοση τοῦ ηµοκριτείου Πανεπιστηµίου Θράκης σὲ συνεργασία µὲ τὸ Σύλλογο Ελλήνων Φίλων τοῦtex Εκδόσεις : Εταιρεία Αξιοποίησης και ιαχείρισης Περιουσίας ηµοκριτείου Πανεπιστηµίου Θράκης ΞΑΝΘΗ
ISSN1108-4170 (Eutupon) is a publication of the Democritus University of Thrace (Greece) in collaborationwiththe GreekTEX sfriends ( εϕτ ) Group. It is published twice a year and it is distributed for free to the members ofthe εϕτ GroupandtothepublicingeneralthroughInternet.ItsarticlesdealwithTEX and, in general, with tools for the electronic typesettingofprintedmatter. Editor-in-Chief of isprof. Basil K. PapadopoulosoftheDepartmentofCivilEngineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece.Theaddressof is: GreekTEX sfriends (c/o A. Syropoulos) 366,28thOctoberStreet GR-67100Xanthi Greece URL:obelix.ee.duth.gr/eft E-mail:eft@ocean1.ee.duth.gr Themembershipfeestothe εϕτ Groupare: Admission: 5,000 GRD( 15.00) 6-monthsubscription: 3,000 GRD( 9.00) Annualsubscription: 5,000 GRD( 15.00) (AllchequesshouldbemadepayabletoApostolosSyropoulos.) Articlesalready publishedin may becopiedandredistributedforfree,provided their origin is mentionned. However, neither northe εϕτ Groupassumeanyresponsibityformethods,products,instructions orideasdescribedorexpressedinarticlespublishedherein.thecontentofarticlespublished hereinisthesoleresponsibilityoftherespectiveauthors. Τὸ ἀποτελεῖ µία περιοδικὴ ἔκδοση τοῦ ηµοκριτείου Πανεπιστηµιου Θράκης σὲ συνεργασία µὲ τὸ Σύλλογο Ελλήνων Φίλων τοῦ TEX ( εϕτ ). Κυκλοφορεῖ ἀνὰ ἑξάµηνο καὶ διανέµεται δωρεὰν στὰ µέλη τοῦ Συλλόγου καὶ στὸ εὑρύτερο κοινὸ µέσῳ τοῦ ιαδικτύου. Στὶς σελίδες του δηµοσιεύονται ἄρθρα σχετικὰ µὲ τὸtex καὶ τὴν ἠλεκτρονικὴ στοιχειοθεσία ἐντύπων γενικώτερα. Αρχισυντάκτης καὶ ὑπεύθυνος κατὰ τὸ νόµο γιὰ τὸ εἶναι ὁ κ. Βασίλειος Κ. Παπαδόπουλος, καθηγητὴς τοῦ Τµήµατος Πολιτικῶν Μηχανικῶν τοῦ ηµοκριτείου Πανεπιστηµίου Θράκης. Η διεύθυνση τοῦ εἶναι : Σύλλογος Ελλήνων Φίλων τοῦ TEX (ὑπ ὅψη : Α. Συρόπουλος) 28ης Οκτωϐρίου 366 671 00 Ξάνθη URL:obelix.ee.duth.gr/eft H/T: eft@ocean1.ee.duth.gr Συνδροµὲς µέλους στὸν Σύλλογο εϕτ : Εγγραφή: 5.000 δρχ. (15 ) Συνδροµὴ ἑξάµηνη : 3.000 δρχ. (9 ) Συνδροµὴ ἐτήσια : 5.000 δρχ. (15 ) ( Επιταγὲς ϑὰ πρέπει νὰ ἀποστέλλονται στὸ ὄ- νοµα τοῦ Αποστόλου Συρόπουλου.) Επιτρέπεται ἡ ἀναδηµοσίευση καὶ διανοµὴ ἄρ- ϑρωνποὺ ἔχουνἤδη δηµοσιευθεῖ στὸ, ὑπὸ τὸνὅρο ὅτι ϑὰ ἀναφέρεται ἡ προέλευσή τους. Ωστόσο, τόσο τὸ ὅσο καὶ ὁ Σύλλογος εϕτ δὲν ἀναλαµϐάνουν καµία εὐϑύνη γιὰ µεθόδους, προϊόντα, ὁδηγίες καὶ ἰδέες ποὺ περιγράφονται ἢ ἐκφράζονται ἐντὸς ἄρθρων δηµοσιευµένων στὸ περιοδικό. Τὸ περιεχόµενο τῶν ἄρθρων ποὺ δηµοσιεύονται ἐντὸς τοῦ περιοδικοῦ ἀποτελεῖ εὐϑύνη τῶν ἀντιστοίχων συγγραφέων.
TEXνίτριες καὶtexνίτες! ENTEX NA & ATEX NA Αφοῦ συµϐουλευθήκαµε τὴνὁµήγυρη τοῦ εϕτ γιὰ τὸ πῶς ἀποδίδεται ὁ ὅρος editorial στὰ ἑλληνικά, ἀποφασίσα- µε νὰ ἀλλάξουµε τὸν τίτλο ἑτούτης τῆς στήλης ἀπὸ τὴν ἀ- δόκιµη «Επιφυλλίδα» σὲ «ΕνTEXνακαὶἄTEXνα» καθ ὑπόδειξητοῦ ηµήτρηλένη(dimitris.lenis@lithos.culture. gr). Η ἄλλη λύση ϑὰ ἦταννὰ βαφτίσουµε τὴ στήλη «κύριο ἄρθρο», ἀλλὰ αὐτὸς ὁ τίτλος ταιριάζει περισσότερο σὲ πολιτικὰ ἔντυπα γνώµης. Τὰ νέα µας σήµερα δὲν εἶναι πολλά, ἀλλὰ µόνον ἕνα καὶ ἐντυπωσιακό: Ο Σύλλογός µας ἔκανε τὶς πρῶτες δειλὲς κρούσεις γιὰ νὰ ἀναλάϐει τὴν διοργάνωση τοῦ συνεδρίου TUG2004. Τὴν χρονιὰ ποὺ ϑὰ χάνει ἡ µάνα τὸ παιδὶ καὶ τὸ παιδὶ τὴν µάνα στὰ κωπηλατοδρόµια τῆς Αθήνας, ἐµεῖς σκεφθήκαµε νὰ µαζευτοῦµε στὴν Θράκη γιὰ νὰ τὰ ποῦµε (καὶ νὰ τὰ πιοῦµε) παρέα µὲ ἄλλους TEXνίτες ποὺ ϑὰ ἔρ- ϑουνγι αὐτὸ τὸνσκοπὸ ἀπὸ ὅλοντὸνκόσµο. Γιὰ τὴνὥρα δὲνἔχουµε λάϐει καµία ἐπίσηµη ἀπάντηση ἀπὸ τὸ TUG, ἀλλὰ εὐελπιστοῦµε ὅτι ἡ πρόταση ϑὰ γίνει τελικὰ δεκτή. Αναµείνατε στὸ ἀκουστικό σας γιὰ τὴ συνέχεια! Στὸ σηµερινὸ Εὔτυπον, τὰ περισσότερα ἄρθρα εἶναι στὰ ἀγγλικά. ΤὸTEX εἶναι µία διεθνὴς προσπάθεια καὶ σ αὐτὴ συνεισφέρουνἄτοµα ἀπὸ ὅλη τὴνγῆ ποὺ ἀναγκαστικὰ ἐ- πικοινωνοῦν µεταξύ τους στὴν διεθνὴ γλώσσα τῆς ἐποχῆς. Ετσι, σὲ ἑτοῦτο τὸ τεῦχος, ὁsörenhindsholm µᾶς ἐξηγεῖ στὰ ἀγγλικὰ πῶς εἰσάγεται τὸl A TEX στὰ σχολεῖα τῆς ανίας. Ο Dag Langmyhr µᾶς παρουσιάζει τὸ StarTEX, µία ἁπλούστερη ἔκδοση τοῦl A TEX γιὰ ἀρχαρίους. ΟMarcelOliver ἀναλύει τὰ προϐλήµατα καὶ τὶς ἐνδεχόµενες λύσεις γιὰ τὸ πολύγλωσσοl A TEX3 ἀµὴνκαὶπότε! καὶὁsivantoledo ἐξηγεῖ πῶς ϑὰ µπορέσουµε νὰ στοιχειοθετήσουµε ἕνα ἑϐραϊκὸ κείµενο. Οπως πάντα, τὸ τεῦχος κλείνει µὲ τὰ ἄρθρα τῶνtexχνικῶν καὶ τῆς Βιϐλίο-Παρουσίασης. Αὐτὰ λοιπὸν γιὰ σήµερα. Μέχρι νὰ τὰ ξαναποῦµε, σᾶς εὐχόµαστε καλὸ καλοκαίρι µὲ ὅ,τι καλύτερο καὶ TEXνικότερο! Απόστολος Συρόπουλος ηµήτριος Α. Φιλίππου Γιάννης ηµάκος
Οἱ σηµειώσεις τοῦ τυπογράφου Τὸ στοιχειοθετήθηκε µὲ τὸl A TEX. Ως βασικὰ πακέτα χρησιµοπιοιήθηκαντὸ cah-gut.cls (τὸ πακέτο τοῦ γαλλικοῦ περιοδικοῦ Les Cahiers GUTenberg) καὶ τὸ babel µὲ τὴνἀγγλικὴ καὶ τὴνἑλληνικὴ ἐπιλογή. Γιὰ τὶς διάφορες γραφικὲς παραστάσεις, χρησιµοποιήθηκανἐπίσης τὰ πακέτα graphicx καὶ color. Ως βασικὴ γραµµατοσειρὰ σ ἑτοῦτο τὸ τεῦχος χρησιµοποιήθηκε ἡ Palatino Linotype TM τοῦ Hermann Zapf. Η ἠλεκτρονικὴ µετατροπὴ τῆς γραµµατοσειρᾶς αὐτῆς ἀπὸtruetype σὲpostscripttype1γιὰ τὸl A TEX ἔγινε µὲ τὸ πρόγραµµα Fontographer ἀπὸ τὸν Αντώνη Τσολοµύτη (atsol@iris. math.aegean.gr). Τὸ χαρακτικὸ στὴντελευταία σελίδα εἶναι τῆς Βάσως Κατράκη (1914 1988) καὶ ϕέρει τὸντίτλο «Μικρὸ Τοπίο ΙΙ» (ἀπὸ τὸurl:www.exparter.gr/ gr/net_gallery/haraktiki/katraki/index.html). Ο γραµµικὸς κώδικας τοῦ ὀπισθόφυλλου εἶναι µιὰ εὐγενικὴ προσφορὰ τοῦ Γιάννη Χαραλάµπους (yannis@fluxus-virus.com). Η ἐκτύπωση ἔγινε µὲ τὸ πρόγραµµα Ghostscript σὲ ἐκτυπωτὴ HPLaser- JetV(1200dpi), ἐνῶ ἡ βιϐλιοδεσία ἔγινε στὸ Τυπογραφεῖο τοῦ ηµοκριτείου Πανεπιστηµίου Θράκης στὴν Ξάνθη. Παροράµατα προηγουµένου τεύχους (5, Οκτώϐριος 2000) Στὶς Σηµειώσεις τοῦ Τυπογράφου τοῦ προηγουµένου τεύχους γράψαµε ὅτι ἡ εἰκόνα στὴ σελίδα 59 ἦταν τοῦ καλοκάγαθου Οϐελὶξ τοῦ Uderzo. Ελα ὅµως ποὺ τὴντελευταία στιγµὴ ὁ Οϐελὶξ ἀντικαταστάθηκε ἀπὸ µία ἄλλη εἰκόνα, µία ϕωτογραφία ἑνὸς τοπίου, ἡ ὁποία ἔϐγαινε πιὸ καθαρὴ σὲ ἀσπρόµαυρη ἐκτύπωση. Στὴ σελ. 18, ὁ Knuth ἔγινε Κνυτη καὶ στὴ σελ. 20, τὸ <<ìnoma tmămatoc>>= ἔγινε << onoma tm hmatos>>=. Ας µᾶς συγχωρέσει τουλάχιστονὁ Μέγας ΑρχιTEXνίτης ποὺ τὸν κάναµε... ἀνορθόγραφο µέλος τῆς ΚΝΕ! Τέλος, στὴνσελ. 61, ἡ κριτικὴ ἀπὸ ε ὐ π ρ ό σ δ ε κ τ η ἔγινε «ε ὐ π ρ ό ς δ ε κ τ η» µὲ ἕνα σίγµα τελικὸ στὴ µέση τῆς λέξης. Εὐχαριστοῦµε τὸν Γιάννη ηµάκο (idimakos@otenet.gr)ποὺ µᾶς ἐπισήµανε αὐτὰ τὰ παροράµατα, ἀνέλαϐε ἐθελοντικὰ τὸν ρόλο τοῦ διορθωτῆ τοῦ περιοδικοῦ καὶ ἔγινε defacto µέλος τῆς Συντακτικῆς Οµάδας τοῦ Εὐτύπου.
Εὔτυπον Τε υχος Νο.6 Απρίλιος 2001 1 L A TEXinsecondaryschools SörenHindsholm AalborghusGymnasium Denmark E-mail:soeren@hindsholm.dk Abstract At Aalborghus Gymnasium, Denmark, a class has been taught LATEX sinceautumn1999.onlyabout25%ofthestudents(17 18yearsold)now use LATEX,but learning LATEX has inspired cooperation and stimulated the interestinscience.betterinstallationinstructionswillmaketheintroductionoflatexeasier,butthereislittledoubtthatfreesoftwareliketexand StarOffice has a promising future in Danish secondary education. 1. Background InDenmark90%ofallstudentsinsecondaryschoolshaveacomputer athomeanditisconnectedtotheinternet.apartfromaminoritytheydo notknowalotaboutcomputersandtheiruse,buttheylikewritingessays andotherkindsofhomeworkonthecomputer,andnearlyallofthemuse MicrosoftWord.ThisisworkingfineasfarasDanish,foreignlanguages and social science are concerned, but when it comes to writing papers in mathematics and physics the shortcomings of a word processor which wasbasicallymadeforwritingbusinesslettersbecomealltooobvious. ThereforeIdecidedtoteachmyphysicsclass1999xLATEXalmosttwoyears ago. Myintentionswerenotonlytoteachthemasuitableprogramforthis particular purpose but also to create an inviting environment for learning science: The number of students who choose science, particularly in physics,attheuniversityaftersecondaryschoolisdwindlingindenmark as in most other European countries and I hoped that the collaboration inlearninglatexwouldgivethemanideaofhowstudentsandscientists worktogethersothattheexperiencecouldmakethechoiceofsciencea littlemoreattractivetothem.
2 Sören Hindsholm 2. Realisationoftheplan DuringthesummerholidayIwroteamanualoninstallingMikTEXon awindowscomputer www.hindsholm.dk/soeren/tex/vejledning. html and Imadeacdwiththe necessaryfiles.assoonasimetmy studentsiintroducedthem tothe planand afterthe ordinarylessonsi gave them two short introductions: 1) About the system in general, and 2) Exercises. It soon proved that the installation was an insurmountable difficulty andihadtovisitmostofmystudentstoinstallmiktex.thisisthefirst lesson I was taught: Installation instructions must be better if LATEX is going to be widespread among students at secondary schools. In particular how tosetupthespecificlanguageneededandhowtomakethemainprogram cooperatewiththeeditorandaviewer.wechoosetexshellasitisfree;i amwellawarethatwinedtisbetter,butmyschoolhasadefiniteandclear policyaboutillegalsoftware. AnotherproblemwashowtoinstallMikTEXontheWindowsNTserver atthe school.the systemadministratorshave many things to do and I could not just take their time when an experiment like this one, including only a minority of the students, was concerned. Therefore I had to do mostofitmyselfandittookaconsiderableamountoftimebecauseno straightforward manual was available. TheteachingofLATEXwasrathersimple.FirstIshowedmystudents howatextwascomposedintheeditor,thencompiledandatlastshownon thescreenandperhapsprintedbymeansofyap.thiswasacleardemonstrationofthetechniqueofthecompilerasopposedtothewysiwyg(or aswewouldratherputitwhatyouseeisallyouget). ThenIgavethemacoupleofhandouts:sampledk.texandtheoutput of this file it is of course a Danish versionof sample.tex.wewent carefully through the source and discussed how LATEX had treated the input. The final lessonwas a practical exercise.they brought with them a paperinphysicsormathsandthentheystartedwriting;iwaspresentin thecomputerroomsothattheyhadaccesstoimmediatehelp.andthat was it. OfcoursetheyhadnotlearnedLATEXbynow,buttheyknewenoughto start writing on their own, and when they had problems we communicated atschoolorbysendinge-mails theyareawonderfultoolforteachinga subjectlikelatex. 3. Results Oneyearandsixmonthsafterwestartedapproximately25%ofthe students use LATEXwhen they write rapportsetc.in physics.this is disappointing,ithink.butitispartlyduetothesadfactthatlastautumnour
headmasterfellillandihadtotakeoverherduties.becauseofthisthe studentsdidnothavemorelessonsinlatexatamomentwheresomeof themneededalittleencouragement. But in other ways the experimenthas been rather successful.those whodouselatexhavebeenreallyhelpfultooneanotherandeventhose whodonotuselatexhavebeenaffectedbythepositivespiritthatarose fromcollaborationintheclass.morethan50%ofthestudentschoseto have physics during their last year in secondary school where physics isnotcompulsory,andithinkthatmorethan50%isalmostanational record. I can only recommend that teachers try teaching their students LATEX because of this and because it seems to improve the students respect andadmirationofateacherwhenhetriestoteachthemsomethingspecial andbelievestheycandoit. Furthermore the introduction of LATEX in a secondary school has a generaleffectonthewholeinstitution:afewstudentsfromotherclasses whotakeaparticularinterestincomputingwillsoonpickuptheideaand learnbythemselvesorbyhelpofothers.someofthemwillbecomevery ableandshowtotheschoolwhatlatexcandoforwriters.thishasindeed happened at our school. 4. Thefuture ThereisnodoubtthatfreesoftwarehasapromisingfutureinDanish secondary education. Now we spend huge amounts of money on Microsoft licensesandtimeontheirsystemswhicharehardtomanageinaneconomical way. Some schools have already migrated to StarOffice and Sun Raythinclientswhichseemtobethebestalternativeforthetimebeing. IhopeLATEXispartofthisfuture.Butifitisgoingtobeitmustbeeasier toinstall,bothonstandalonecomputersandserversandoneachschoola critical percentage of the students and teachers must be reached. TheLATEX-societymustkeepthisprocessgoingbycontinuousdemonstration of the qualities of LATEX. An example of this demonstration will be the question paper for the Danish national exam in classical Greek this summer;ithasbeenmadewithlatex,andthiswaygreekusedlatexfor this purpose before physics and mathematics in Denmark. Syren Hindsholm, MA(latin, physics, and classical civilisation) at Aarhus University, did graduateresearchattheuniversityofcambridge,deputyheadmasterataalborghusgymnasium, Denmark. E-mail: soeren@hindsholm.dk.
xenofon: symposion 2001-4-2 Opgaver Tallene i parentes henviser til linjerne i den græske tekst A. Analyseopgaver Begge skal besvares 1. Find følgende former: êlhxen (1), kekosmhmènh (9), ŽgĹsjhsan (10), stìmasi (20), sunomìsai (23). Bestem formen, herunder ordklassen, og anfør opslagsordet. 2. Giv en syntaktisk analyse af helsætningen: KaÈ găr ćkouon toü DionÔsou màn âperwtàntoc aîtăn, eê fileø aîtìn, (21-22) B. Oversættelsesopgaver Begge skal besvares 1. Giv en mere ordret oversættelse (version) af stykket: SwkrĹthc dà kaè tàn Łllwn oé ÍpomeÐnantec präc LÔkwna kaè tän uéän sìn KallÐø peripatăsontec Ćpĺljon. (28-29) 2. Gør i samme tekststykke rede for, a) hvilke(t) græsk(e) ord der er gengivet med hvem der ellers var tilbage, b) hvorledes peripatăsontec er gengivet i den danskeoversættelse, og hvad forskellen er mellem den græske tekst og den danske oversættelse. C. Fortolkningsopgaver Besvar spørgsmål 1 og to af de følgende, i alt tre. Svarene nummereres. 1. Gør rede for spillet mellem illusion og virkelighed i tekststykket. 2. Kommentér det guddommelige og det menneskelige i de to rollefigurer, Dionysos og Ariadne. 3. Diskutér, hvad der ligger i ordene kalìc ge kćgajìc i linje 3. 4. Gør med udgangspunkt i teksten rede for symposion som græsk kulturfænomen, jf. fig. 1. 5. Begrund ud fra teksten de tilstedeværende personers sociale og politiske status. 6. Hvad viser teksten om seksualnormer i Athen? 7. Diskutér, hvorfor det er Dionysos og Ariadne, der fremstilles i pantomimen. 8. Hvilket bidrag giver teksten til opfattelsen af Sokrates? 9. Beskriv fig. 1 og/eller fig. 2 og giv på baggrund af denne beskrivelse en datering og en redegørelse for, hvad figuren forestiller og betyder. Figure 1:
Εὔτυπον Τε υχος Νο.6 Απρίλιος 2001 5 AnalternativetoL A TEXforbeginners DagLangmyhr DepartmentofInformatics University ofoslo Norway E-mail:dag@ifi.uio.no Abstract Novice users, like students writing their first report, often have problems with LATEX.ThisarticledescribesStarTEX,a simplerand morerobusttex variant for these users. 1. TheproblemwithL A TEX L A TEX[2]isawonderfultoolforcreatingallkindsofreports,particularly if they contain mathematicalformulz. Eventhe most eager L A TEXfanmust, however,admitthatnearlyallusershaveproblemsthefirsttimetheywantto process their document. AllstudentsatmydepartmentarerequiredtowriteafewreportsinL A TEX, and these are their main complaints: The major problem is the error messages. They are very terse at best, andsincetheyaresometimesproducedbyl A TEXandatothertimesby TEX, understanding the messages requires reasonably good knowledge of bothsystems.moststudentstendtolookonlyatthelinenumberswhen examining their error logs. L A TEXisnotveryrobust;trivialsyntaxerrorscancauseaseriousburstof confusingerrormessages,likewhenyouforgeta\\priorto\hlineinan arrayenvironment. Youcanalsoexperienceundesiredeffectsifyouusethecommandsincorrectly,forinstanceifyouwrite \abstract{text} ratherthanthecorrect
6 DagLangmyhr \begin{abstract} text \end{abstract} Thiserrorproducesnoerrormessage,butwillcausethewholearticleto besetinasmallerfont. L A TEXdoesnothidetheprimitivecommandsofTEX,makingitpossible fortheuserstoaccessthemaccidentally.forexample,oneofourusers definedamacroforhername: \def \else {Else Hansen} Thiserroraloneproducedmorethen100errormessages. L A TEXusestenspecialcharacters:#, $,%, &,~, ^, _,{, },and\.usersneed torememberthatthesecharactersarespecial,andtheymustlearnwhich commandsarenecessarytoproducethemiftheyarerequiredinthetext. Fewerspecialcharacterswouldbeanadvantage. Thecommandnotation \xxxusedinl A TEXoftencausesproblemswith the space following it. L A TEX has borrowed its error recovery philosophy from plain TEX: the userisexpectedtomanuallycorrecteachdetectederrortoallowl A TEX toproceed.the problemwiththisapproachisthatyouwillgetmany confusingerrormessagesifyoudonotcorrecttheerrorproperly. None of our students use this interactive recovery facility; they either restartthewhole processing afterhaving discoveredthe first error, or they let the processing run to completion without any interaction. An automatic error recovery scheme like the one employed by compilers wouldbeagreatbenefitfortheseusers. L A TEX provides a mixture of structural mark-up commands as well as visual mark-up. The advantage is that experienced users can achieve the visual appearance they desire; the disadvantage is that less experiencedusers particularlythosewhohaveusedotherdocumentprocessingtools spendtoomuchoftheirtimetryingtocoercel A TEXinto producing exactly the layout they think is proper. 2. Requirements for a better tool AlltheseproblemsindicatethatL A TEXinitspresentformisnotthetoolwe wantforourstudents,atleastnotfortheirfirstreport.wewantadocument processing program with the following properties:
StarTEX 7 It must be based on TEX to achieve the desired quality in mathematical formulz. Itshoulduseadifferentnotationforitsmark-upcommands;onewhich causeslessconfusionconcerningspacesandhasfewerspecialcharacters. ItmusthidealltheinternalTEXcommands;thisistheonlysafewayto avoid students using them accidentally. Itmustbesmallandeasytounderstandfortheusers.Also,itmustbe simple to adapt to any particular requirements an institution might have. It should contain structural mark-up commands only, and no visual markup. Itshouldberobust. It should produce better error messages. If possible, no messages from TEX should ever appear. If this is impossible, error messages from TEX shouldbeprecededbyamessageproducedbythenewtool. Since most students tend to just disregard all messages about under- and over-full boxes, it should try to reduce the number of such messages. Itshouldruninnonstopmodeanduseautomaticerrorrecoverytodetect asmanygenuineerrorsaspossible. ItshouldbeasfastasplainTEX. The command handling should be insensitive to uppercase and lowercase. Thisisnotanimportantissue,butcaseconfusionhascausedproblems forsomeusers. 3. The solution Attempting toachievethe goals mentioned above,startex was designed. ThenamewaschosentoindicatethatitwasaStarters TEX. StarTEXisanewTEXformat,andisthusacousinofAMS-TEX[5]andL A TEX. ItisbuiltontopoftheplainTEX[1]commands. 3.1. The notation AttheEuroTEXconferenceinArnheminSeptember1995,PhilipTaylor[6] proposedadifferentnotationfor(l A )TEXcommands: <xxx> ratherthan \xxx.
8 DagLangmyhr IdecidedtousethisnotationinStarTEXasitsolvesmanyofourproblems: Spacesfollowingthecommandarenolongeraproblem.Thereisnoneed for special rules like When a space comes after a control word, it is ignoredbytex. [1,p.8]. Onlyonespecialcharacterisneeded:<.Thecharacters#,$,%,&,~,^,_,{, } and\ are now ordinary characters. The command name may contain almost any character, not just letters. Theschemeiseasytoimplement:allthatisrequiredistomake<anactive character, and let the corresponding command regard everything up to thefollowing >asaparameter. Sinceallcommandsarecalledthroughthisinterface,itiseasytomake all internal TEX commands invisible. Itiseasytocheckwhethertheusercommandisdefined,andprovide suitableerrorrecoveryifitisnot. Itis easyto\lowercasethe user command, thus making the command handling insensitive to case. ThiscommandnotationisthesameasinHTML[4]withwhichmanystudents are familiar. Icouldhaveusedanybracketingsymbolpair,like [xxx]or {xxx}or /xxx\, butichose<xxx>becauseitresembleshtmlandbecause<and>arenotused very frequently. 3.1.1. Command parameters A few commands need a parameter to specify non-printing matter like a filenameoralabel.ichosetousesquarebracketsforthis,asin <ref>[label] Using a special notation indicates more clearly that the parameter is not to be typeset. 3.2. The command set The set of available StarTEX commands was chosen with the following aims in mind: Thereshouldbesufficientcommandsforwritingastudentreport,but otherwise there should be as few commands as possible.
StarTEX 9 There should be no commands for visual mark-up, only structural specifications. Thecommandsshould haveaformthatmakesthemeasytocheckfor errors,andtoautomaticallyrecoverfromtheerrors. Intable1arelistedmostoftheStarTEXcommandswiththeirL A TEXcounterpart. 3.2.1. Paragraph separation Itwasdecidedtouse<p>toseparateparagraphs,asinHTML.Eventhough theblanklineusedby(l A )TEXiseasiertotype,itdoescauseproblemswith indentation of the paragraph following an environment like a list. Using <p> alleviates this problem. Anotheradvantageofusingthe <p>notationisthatitcanbeemployedas lineseparator(like\\inl A TEX)inenvironmentswheretheconceptofparagraph makeslittlesense,asinthe<title>or<author>environments.thisprovides a double benefit: a special command for line breaking is no longer necessary, andusing<p>ina<title>environmentisnowlegal. 3.2.2. Font selection A few commands for font selection are necessary, but my belief is that <b> (for bold text), <i> (for italic)and<tt>(for typewriter text)forma sufficientsetofcommands.thecommandsmayofcoursebenestedtoprovide for instance italic typewriter text. Some might argue that these commands are visual rather than structural, and that the HTML approach of providing a wider selection of structural commands like <dfn>for definitions, <em>for emphasis, <kbd>forkeyboardinput and <samp>for literal characters, is more logical. My own experience is that thereareseldomenoughdefinitionstosuitmyneeds,soiwillforinstanceuse a specification like <strong>when I really want to indicate a reservedword in a programming language. Providing a few simple type changing commands is better. 3.3. PostScript figures Since nearly all figures used in L A TEX documents at our department are PostScript files, it seems reasonable to specialize the interface for this. The notation <psfig>[filename]captiontext</psfig>
10 DagLangmyhr StarTEX LATEX Document <body>text</body> \begin{document}text\end{document} Document style \style[stylefile] \documentclass{stylefile} Document <title>text</title> \title{text} head <author>text</author> \author{text} <info>text</info> \date{text} \maketitle Abstract <abstract>text</abstract> \begin{abstract}text\end{abstract} Font <b>text</b> \textbf{text} change <i>text</i> \textit{text} <tt>text</tt> \texttt{text} Paragraph break <p> blank line Mathematical <math>formula</math> \(formula\) formulz <displaymath> \[formula\] formula </displaymath> Sectioning <h1>text</h1> \section{text} <h2>text</h2> \subsection{text} <h3>text</h3> \subsubsection{text} <h4>text</h4> \paragraph{text} Itemized <list> \begin{itemize} list <item>... \item... : : </list> \end{itemize} Enumerated <list> \begin{enumerate} list <numitem>... \item... : : </list> \end{enumerate} Description <list> \begin{description} list <textitem>text</textitem>... \item[text]... : : </list> \end{description} PostScript <psfig>[file name]caption text \begin{figure} figure </psfig> \caption{caption text} \begin{center} \includegraphics{file name} \end{center} \end{figure} Table <table>caption text \begin{table} <row>text<col>text<col>... \caption{caption text} <row>text<col>text<col>... \begin{center} : \begin{tabular}{ c...}\hline </table> text& text&...\\ \hline text&text&...\\ \hline : \end{tabular} \end{center} \end{table} Footnote <footnote>text</footnote> \footnote{text} Raw text <code>text</code> \begin{verbatim}text\end{verbatim} \verb text Cross <label>[label] \label{label} references <ref>[label] \ref{label}, \pageref{label} Comments <comment>text</comment> %text end-line Usermacro <define><name>definition end-line \newcommand{\name}{definition} Table 1: StarTEX command overview
StarTEX 11 Table2:Asmalltablesample Index Data 12 199 17 0 waschosenasonlytwokeywordswerenecessary.allfiguresareautomatically scaledandtheyfloattothetopofthecurrentorfollowingpage. 3.4. Tables Thenotationfortableswasalsochosentobeassimpleaspossible,andto easeerrordetectionandrecovery.onlyveryregulartablesarecateredfor,but thisisthepriceonehastopayforasimplenotation. A table is a complex structure, with entries in columns within rows inside the table, but a notation was found which will seldom give grouping errors: <table>captiontext <row>text<col>text<col>... <row>text<col>text<col>... : </table> Every<row>startsanewrow,andeach<col>startsanothercolumn.Thetext priortothefirstrowisregardedasthetablecaption. The number of columns is determined automatically. All columns are centered, and a grid of horizontal and vertical rules is always added. For example, the code <table> A small table sample <row> <b>index</b> <col> <b>data</b> <row> 12 <col> 199 <row> 17 <col> 0 </table> willgeneratethetableshownastable2.
12 DagLangmyhr 3.5. Document styles All documents need some adaption to conform to a particular style. I proposetolettheuserdecidethisbystating <style>[style file] ThestylefileiswritteninplainTEXandcontainsthenecessarydefinitionsand modifications. Since the user has no visual mark-up commands at his or her disposal, all design decisions are made by the style designer. This makes it easiertohaveallreportsconformtoanapprovedstandard. MyhopeisthateachsiteusingStarTEXwilldevelopstylesoftheirown. These styles should be comprehensive, as the user may only specify that one style. For instance, our style ifi-reportdefines thepagesize(a4paper), Norwegianformatof<today>and<now>, Norwegian translations of fixed texts like Figure and Table, thepageheadersandfooters,and various minor typographic details. 3.6. Cross references StarTEXusesmoreorlessthesamemechanismsforcrossreferencesasL A TEX. Interesting sections, figures and tables are given a label using the <label> command, which may then be referenced using the <ref>command. Theappearanceofthereferenceisdefinedbythedocumentstyle,butwill normallycontainthepagenumberifthereferenceisadifferentpage;there is thus no need for a \pagerefcommand. (This is similar to the varioref package[3].) 3.7. Mathematical formulz One of the most important reasons for choosing a typesetting system based ontexisitsabilitytotypesetmathematicalformulz.allthemathmodecommandsavailablein(l A )TEXareimplementedinStarTEX,andmostofthemuse anotationsimilartohtmlversion3.0.forexample,theformula istypedas 1 f(x) 1 + x x
StarTEX 13 Symbol StarTEXcode < <lt> > <gt> <--> <---> atie <~>... <...> today s date <today> the present time <now> TEX <tex> L A TEX <latex> StarTEX <startex> Table 3: The remaining StarTEX commands <displaymath> <int><sub>1</sub><sup><infinity></sup> <frac>f(x)<over>1+x</frac> <partial>x </displaymath> 3.8. User-defined macros Itwasdecidedtoallowtheuserstodefinetheirowncommands,butwith the following restrictions: Themacrosmaynothaveparameters. Nomacrosmayberedefined. The StarTEXnotation <define><name>definition end-line waschosentomakeerrorrecoveryeasier.thereisnownochanceofarunaway definition,likeyouwouldgetin(l A )TEXifyouforgotafinal}. 3.9. Various other commands In table 3 are shown the few remaining StarTEX commands.
14 DagLangmyhr <body> <title> <startex><--->a <tex> for beginners </title> <author> Dag Langmyhr<p> Department of Informatics<p> University of Oslo<p> <tt>dag@ifi.uio.no</tt> </author> <info> <today> </info> <abstract> This document describes <startex>, a special <tex> format for students writing their first project report. </abstract> <h1> The basic philosophy of <Startex> </h1> <Startex> was designed for novice <tex> users. It employs a different notation and a different set of commands from <latex>, and the idea is that this makes it more user-friendly for these users than plain <tex> or <latex>. <p> The notation used in <startex> resembles HTML and some of the commands are the same, but the philosophy of the two is different. HTML was designed to display hypertext information on a computer screen, while <startex> is used to produce a student report on paper. </body> Figure2:AnexampleStarTEXdocument 3.10. An example In figure 2 is shown an example document using some of the StarTEX commands. 4. Otherdesigndecisions 4.1. Error recovery As mentioned previously, StarTEX can employ the <xxx>notation to detect errorsandprovidesomeerrorrecovery.forinstance,itkeepstrackofboth the current and the outer environments, and which commands should be used
StarTEX 15 to exit those environments. This means that it can detect and remedy the following situations: Amissingterminator </xxx>willbedetectedwhentheouterenvironmentisfinished.inthiscase,bothenvironmentswillbeexited,andyou would get an error message like ** StarTeX error detected on line 7: <i> on line 7 terminated by </b>. An extra </i> has been inserted. A superfluous terminator </xxx>will be recognized as such, and ignored, and the user would be notified with the following error message: ** StarTeX error detected on line 15: <body> on line 1 terminated by </b>. The </b> will be ignored. 4.2. Paragraph parameters L A TEXisaprogramforqualitytypesetting,andthisisreflectedinthestandardsettingsfortheparagraphbreakingparameters.Evenparagraphsthat lookquitegoodtoanuntrainedeyemayproducemessagesaboutunder-or over-fullboxes.whenl A TEXisunabletofindasetofbreaksitregardsasacceptable,theresultmaybetrulyhorrible,withwordsstickingintothemargin,or allexcessspaceputintothefirstline.thisoccursquiteofteninlanguageslike Norwegianwhichhavemanylongcompoundwords.AnexperiencedL A TEX userwilleasilydetecttheproblemwordandfixthatorrephrasethetext,but novice users seldom understand these messages and tend to ignore them. Allthemessagesaboutover-fullandunder-fullboxescreateanotherproblemfortheL A TEXnovices.Sincemanyofthemusetools(likeAUC-TEX[7])that runl A TEXinnon-stopmode,theygetpagesandpagesofseriouserrormessages intertwined with innocuous warnings, so they tend to just ignore all the messages as long as the printed result looks acceptable to them. StarTEXsetsitsstandardparametersforveryloosetypesettingwithhigh valuesfor\toleranceand\emergencystretch.thereasonsforthisare: Ifagoodsetofparagraphbreaksexists,TEXwillstillchoosethat. Sincetheuserstendtoignoremessagesaboutbadbreaks,itisbetterto havealooselybrokenparagraphthantheverybadresultyoumayget whentexhastogiveup. Theresultsachievedthiswayareatleastasgoodasthoseproducedby other typesetting and text-processing software.