is about finding the cause of errors or wrong results in (La)TeX code/documents using a methodical approach.
60
votes
2answers
5k views
How to best debug LaTeX?
..and I don't mean finding out why it doesn't compile, I mean serious debugging: breakpoints, figuring out value of variables at a given moment during run/compile, stepping, examining a stack (is ...
43
votes
4answers
720 views
Why does \vspace, after section heading, sometimes jump/snap in discrete steps?
Well, this is one question that I've had for a long time, and one that always gets me extremely irritated. However, this time I'm even somewhat happy - that I can ask the question at all; and that is ...
42
votes
0answers
1k views
A LaTeX log analyzer application (visualizing TeX expansion)
Consider the following MWE, test.tex:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\tracingassigns=1
\tracingmacros=1
\def\aaa{something}
\def\bbb{else \aaa, else}
\edef\ccc{third \bbb, level}
...
34
votes
2answers
1k views
Is there a \show for lengths?
The \show command is extremely useful for figuring out what's going on with a particular macro. Similarly, using \the can tell me the value of a counter. I'd like to know if there's something ...
24
votes
3answers
12k views
LaTeX with Sublime Text 2
I recently (2 days back) started using LaTeX, I use Sublime Text 2 (ST2) for most of the programming. I found that ST2 has LaTeX package. So what I am doing is write the document with ST2 and run it ...
23
votes
6answers
2k views
Reducing the console output of LaTeX
When I run pdfLaTeX, I get very verbose output:
(/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/frontendlayer/tikz/librarie
s/tikzlibrarycalc.code.tex)
...
Is there a script to soak up all the ...
23
votes
2answers
593 views
How do I debug pgfkeys?
I'm sure if you're reading this question you are already familiar with my love for pgfkeys. However, it is absolutely impossible to debug: \tracingmacros is a total mess, with every key expanding to ...
23
votes
2answers
1k views
Introspection and reflection with LaTeX/TeX macros
Below is a short program that can use \meaning and \string to let a combination of LaTeX and TeX commands to print out the listing of macros. Unsurprisingly (nothing can surprise me with TeX any ...
18
votes
1answer
512 views
Latex \tracing commands list?
Often I need to recall the different \tracing commands; and a couple of times I stumbled on some webpages that worked fine for me; sadly, I didn't keep them, and my searches don't take me there ...
18
votes
1answer
321 views
A “stacktrace” for errors
Is it possible to get some kind of "stacktrace" in TeX errors? I sometimes get errors which only show some deep LaTeX internals, but nothing about which LaTeX macro referenced it.
Thanks,
16
votes
5answers
447 views
What tips and tricks are there for debugging TikZ/PGF code?
When answering questions here and when drawing my own complicated TikZ/PGF drawings, I've developed a fair number of "tips and tricks" for debugging the code. I'm sure that others have as well. I ...
16
votes
2answers
1k views
How can I work around this TikZ bug?
I have some files with TikZ graphics that have suddenly changed appearance since I upgraded to PGF-2.10. Here is a minimal example:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
...
12
votes
2answers
2k views
Is plotting exponential graphs a known source of bugs in TikZ?
I want to plot $y = 2^x$ over a small domain. Unfortunately, even though tikz (v 2.1) seems to be able to calculate 2^{negative numbers} it is not plotting them correctly.
My minimal example is:
...
12
votes
1answer
300 views
Are subcaption and tabularx incompatible?
I know that tex.sx isn't the forum for bug-reporting, but I have a bit of a problem and I'm looking for a technical workaround. The following MWE produces odd labels:
\documentclass{article}
...
11
votes
4answers
466 views
LaTeX debugging strategies and brace mismatching
What is the recommended way to track down brace mismatches in LaTeX? I have a large beamer presentation, but this equally applies to any other LaTeX work I've done.
In other computer languages I've ...
9
votes
1answer
4k views
How do you effectively debug overfull \hbox warnings?
I still haven't found out how to effectively solve Overfull \hbox (0.80913pt too wide) has occurred while \output is active warnings.
For instance, this piece of latex generates such a warning and I ...
9
votes
2answers
358 views
\underfullrule?
I always use something like \overfullrule=1mm when I am writing Latex documents. I do read all warnings regarding overfull \hboxes, but I still prefer the visual output that very clearly shows exactly ...
9
votes
1answer
392 views
Using pgfplots with a0poster
I want to use tikz/pgf to plot some graphs in a poster done with a0poster. That is the code:
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[xlabel=lambda, ylabel=int]
\addplot[blue] table [mark=none, col ...
8
votes
1answer
181 views
Help with the lua-visual-debug package
The documentation for lua-visual-debug is a little sparse. Can someone interpret the boxes/lines/colors that lua-visual-debug produces?
8
votes
1answer
223 views
Is there a \show for catcodes?
In the course of attempting to out-pedant another mathematician, I wanted to \show the catcode of $ to convince myself that it was a "special" character in ordinary TeX as well as LaTeX. I was just ...
8
votes
2answers
83 views
Ease the handling of labels
I want to ease the handling of labels in my document, and I want to show the label for a section if define a "variable".
Currently I'm doing it like this
Setting the up the "variable":
...
8
votes
1answer
102 views
Using \typeout behaviour different with \newtoks vs. \def
I feel as I really should know this, but sadly I don't. Why is the output of \typeout{\the\myToken} not the same as having it printed in the PDF as \the\myToken. No problem with a \def, just with ...
7
votes
1answer
94 views
Get current source line number
How can I get the current .tex source line number? I want to use it to generate useful error messages in a package I am writing.
There are some errors that can only be detected at the end of the ...
7
votes
0answers
304 views
Visualizing correct page lengths with 'layouts' and 'tikz' packages?
I am currently working on a project with xelatex/fontspec and tikz, and so, this example is basically the same as the one from layouts package reads all length as zero with tikz/fontspec/xelatex?.
...
6
votes
1answer
715 views
Install emerald font package on ubuntu
I tried to install the emerald font package on my ubuntu natty box. However if I compile a minimal example like (emerald.tex)
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{emerald}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
...
6
votes
2answers
819 views
How do automatic overlay specification work in beamer?
I've tried reading the excellent Beamer user guide, but failed to understand.
I understand the basic idea: there's a counter beamerpauses that is advanced by a + inside an overlay specification. You ...
6
votes
1answer
279 views
bug with page numbers when using soul package
I recently ran into a curious bug when using the soul package. I
managed to boil it down to the following example. The problem is that
the page numbers get messed up. In the example below, they should ...
6
votes
2answers
575 views
hyperref incorrect links: how to debug?
Problem Statement. I am writing a large document that is too big to provide here for illustration. For the first hundred pages or so, the hyperlinks are correctly matched to the displayed text. For ...
5
votes
3answers
184 views
\settowidth problem in tikz and in groups
I just came to the following problem - using \settowidth on a length in a tikzpicture resets that length to 0? Here is a (totally command-line) MWE, compiled with pdflatex test.tex:
...
5
votes
2answers
222 views
On unprotecting (expanding) \protected macros (or, “the space after command name”)
I quite often come into a situation, where I need to obtain some text produced by a package macro as a string, like in say:
Expanding (edef) a lipsum command?
How do I "unprotect" an ...
5
votes
1answer
243 views
A \typeout (or expandable command) that can expand once - or with variable levels of expansion?
Consider the following MWE:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\begin{document}
\def\aaa{something}
\typeout{=1==\aaa==}
\typeout{=1==\meaning\aaa==}
\typeout{}
\def\bbb{else \aaa, else}
...
5
votes
2answers
105 views
Showing definition of macros with custom characters?
Consider the following MWE:
\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{biblatex}
\begin{document}
\typeout{1.=\meaning\usebibmacro}
\typeout{2.=\meaning\usebibmacro{name:first-last}}
\makeatletter
...
5
votes
1answer
487 views
How to debug an infinite loop in pdfLaTeX code
I have some code which crashes when loading the myriadpro package and loading in the document only the symbol \oiint
\documentclass[]{scrbook}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{amsmath} %
...
5
votes
1answer
166 views
How to find the lost text part when having “Float(s) lost” error
I've lost some text. I don't know if theres something missing, so how can I find it? I'm not in the mood to compare the chapter1.tex to the pdf file by reading both. Chapter 1 (chapter1.tex) is rather ...
5
votes
1answer
815 views
Defining a custom ‘wrapfig’ environment
[ This is an updated version of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3233031/latex-defining-a-custom-wrapfig-environment ]
The wrapfig package interacts badly with the setup and teardown done by \begin ...
5
votes
0answers
222 views
Biblatex 2.1 bug [closed]
After updating my texlive 2012 installation using tlmgr update --all --self the biblatex was updated to version 2.1 and biber to version 1.1. Now I cannot compile my document. I get the following ...
4
votes
3answers
408 views
Error using \usepackage{fancyvrb, fancybox}
With TeX Live 2009, with this MWE.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyvrb, fancybox}
\begin{document}
\begin{Verbatim}[frame=single]
auto eth0
\end{Verbatim}
\end{document}
I ...
3
votes
2answers
270 views
Trace values of parameters
I would like to print the value of a register into the document for 'debugging' purposes. For counters I would use \arabic{myCounter}. But \abovedisplayskip is not a counter.
3
votes
2answers
517 views
Output ASCII code as character on terminal in Latex?
If I have a letter/character, I can output its ASCII value using \number and backtick command:
*\typeout{\number`a}
97
What do I do if I have "97", and I want to show "a" in terminal? I have ...
3
votes
1answer
112 views
Print macro output instead of executing
I am attempting to debug a Tikz/PGF script. I have a STY file that generates Tikz/PGF scripts, but the output graphic isn't quite what I want it to be.
In order to debug the problem, I was hoping ...
3
votes
1answer
254 views
TikZ datavisualization example fails
While trying an example from the datavisualization section of the current TikZ manual I get a strange error message. On my system I have the current MikTeX 2.9 and installed the CVS version of TikZ ...
3
votes
1answer
217 views
How can I check/debug a .cls file?
I am editing a .cls file in order to customize the output of a particular document. However, I am occasionally coming up against errors. Is it possible to check that my .cls file is valid (i.e. no ...
3
votes
1answer
34 views
Bad interaction between keycommand and environ?
I suspect the keycommand and environ packages are not playing nicely together, because the following code gives an error. Can anybody explain what's going on?
\documentclass{article}
...
3
votes
1answer
316 views
Strange persisting error, even after removing the code.
After doing some changes to my document, I get a “Runaway Argument” error on compilation. After undoing these changes the error persists. However, when I copy the code to a new file or rename the .tex ...
3
votes
2answers
118 views
Debugging vertical space on top of page (section inside a custom biblatex cite command)?
Please consider the following MWE, compiled with lualatex test.tex (+ bibtex test + lualatex test.tex):
\documentclass[twoside,a4paper]{book}
\usepackage{lua-visual-debug}
\usepackage{lipsum}
...
3
votes
1answer
128 views
Showing expanded `\let` command with `\typeout`
I have already seen the related page macros - What is the difference between \let and \edef?, but I'm afraid it still doesn't expain to me the following MWE:
\documentclass{minimal}
...
3
votes
1answer
116 views
Why does loading pgfplots after tikz break the default layers in a tikzpicture?
Taking the MWE from Jake's answer to the question Background rectangles with equal width but 'fitting' height, I get an error when loading pgfplots after the tikz packages but not before. I'm assuming ...
3
votes
1answer
252 views
Sublime Text 3 LatexTools
I just installed ST3 and installed the LatexTools package using Package control.
Everything seems to have gone fine except when I compile using CMD+b nothing seems to happen.
On the terminal I get ...
2
votes
2answers
294 views
Meaningful error messages when using latex instead of pdflatex
When I have TikZ images or I include .png graphics, I need to use pdflatex instead of plain vanilla latex. (That is, I need to use pdflatex all the time, rather than just when I want to produce the ...
2
votes
3answers
201 views
Help me to debug long LaTex equations with errors
I want to learn debugging of long LaTeX equations like below:
$\tau=\int\frac{dt}{\gamma} = \int\sqrt{1-\frac{v(t)^2}{c^2}}dt = ...
