Questions tagged [syntax]
{syntax} is about the principles and construction of the (La)TeX language.
362
questions
5
votes
1
answer
126
views
Expl3: When to define a variable as \l_... or as \g_... type variable?
Is the choice whether a variable should be a \g_ or l_ type variable something a programmer can more or less freely decide on? Or are there some strict rules or at least some best-practices that a ...
0
votes
1
answer
56
views
Conditional expressions look always false
Experimenting with conditional expressions, namely with this trivial if...
\def\testvar{testvalue}
\if\testvar{testvalue}{istrue}\else{isfalse}\fi
I get always isfalse. I think I did everything as I ...
0
votes
1
answer
90
views
How to write the dash of discrete math in latex?
I don't know how to use dash like this. It's not \bar{}.
2
votes
1
answer
87
views
Stacking multiple TikZ tree labels?
I have a question related to the labelling of TikZ circles within a forest tree. Is it possible to stack multiple labels below the circle so that they would appear under one another, like this?
...
3
votes
2
answers
156
views
Capital R with whitespace padding
I'm a math and latex novice, and I'm trying to write out the following rule with latex:
I'm having a hard time with this capital R. In the textbook, it has that nice side padding but when I type ...
1
vote
1
answer
73
views
TikZ math library syntax problem
I am using TikZ math library which is great.
However, I can't get my head around this (see MWE).
I missed something from the documentation (https://tikz.dev/library-math)?
\documentclass[tikz]{...
1
vote
1
answer
96
views
Can any character be used in place of a backslash?
In Chapter 3 of The TeXbook, Knuth writes:
TeX allows any character to be used for escapes, but the “backslash” character ‘\’ is usually adopted for this purpose...
This has me confused, for I have ...
0
votes
0
answers
24
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Syntax of LaTeX macros [duplicate]
The TeX primitive \over has syntax {… \over …}.
Is it possible to define a macro \foo, say, with syntax {…}\foo{…} without enclosing brackets?
4
votes
1
answer
341
views
What was the reason behind using sqrt (square root) to name the nth root command? [closed]
Clearly talking about:
\sqrt[n]{x}
here!
1
vote
1
answer
93
views
How to draw a curve to indicate syntactic domain in the qtree?
How to draw a curved line in the qtree and add a description like the following picture?
\Tree [.n,v,aP [.n,v,a ] [.$\sqrt{P}$ [.$\sqrt{\alpha}$ ] [.$\sqrt{\beta}$ ] ] ]
Thanks!
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
Is the preferred use of tilde command with braces?
It looks like the standard way of using the \tilde is as in $\tilde{a}$. However, I saw a latex document in which the usage was $\tilde a$.
Will the two ways of defining a tilde produce the same ...
1
vote
0
answers
48
views
"\setlength" vs "equal" [duplicate]
This is a very general question. Apparently a duplicate of:
Other than syntax what is the difference between \dimen0= and \setlength{}{}?
What is the difference between \fboxsep=1cm and \setlength{\...
3
votes
1
answer
88
views
Problem with the alignment in systeme package
When I type this:
\usepackage{systeme}
\begin{document}
\systeme[xyzt]{x-iy+3t=0,ix-z-(2-i)t=0,(1+i)x+(2-i)y+(3i-5)t=0,-ix+(1+i)y+z-it=0}
\end{document}
I'm ending up with this:
Which, as you see, ...
1
vote
2
answers
265
views
Cross reference not working as intended, the entire name of reference and label gets printed?
So something weird is happening when I installed latex + textstudio on my new machine and tried to compile an old paper:
When I write something like In Sec. \ref{sec:Background}, for some reason the ...
3
votes
3
answers
305
views
Is it possible to use multiple sub- or superscript syntax in math mode?
I often have to write expressions like this in math mode:
L_t^pL_x^q
For some reason, I am not always satisfied with typing this and I would like to define some new command with the same output. I ...
2
votes
2
answers
495
views
How to solve "Package tikz Error: Giving up on this path. Did you forget a semicolon?."?
The code that gives this error message is
\documentclass[dvipsnames]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{tikz-3dplot}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}
\pgfplotsset{...
1
vote
1
answer
45
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Syntax: use second argument leaving the first argument as default in a macro
I use this command to abbreviate my notation
\NewDocumentCommand{\Lp}{O{p}O{\mathbb{R}^d}O{[- \infty, \infty]}}%
{L^{#1}(#2, #3)}
I've set one default for each argument, in most cases I need just ...
0
votes
1
answer
236
views
How to insert table.tex into my latex document
I am trying to figure out how to insert the table I generated in Stata in tex format into my latex document. Currently, I get errors when I copy-paste and after I did modifications to the code. Below ...
3
votes
2
answers
197
views
Constructing \newcommand with caret ('^') or underscore ('_')
I was just wondering if anyone out there was familiar with some apparently less-than-conventional syntax for creating a \newcommand...
Sorry if this is kind of basic, but I just wanted to make small ...
1
vote
1
answer
62
views
How do syntax and coordinate calculations work with the Tikz library `calc`?
I'd like to annotate an image in LaTeX using Tikz. I'm rather new to Tikz, so I have been following a tutorial which breaks it down quite nicely.
In the tutorial they add an image to a node and then ...
4
votes
1
answer
311
views
\def with number in macro works?
I know that numbers cannot be used in macros, e.g., in \def/\newcommand definitions. Can anybody explain to me why this
\documentclass{article}
\def\i2{\frac{i}{2}}
\begin{document}
$\i2$
\end{...
0
votes
1
answer
61
views
undefined environment vmatrix
I am an absolute beginner in LaTeX... I am trying to learn it so that I can use it to ask question in websites.
I have faced the following problem...
I have learned some syntax which is used to ...
1
vote
1
answer
220
views
help with latex syntax parsing errors
Could anyone help to fix the syntax parsing error ?
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\begin{aligned}
\rho &= \begin{pmatrix}
ae^{i\...
1
vote
1
answer
60
views
How does \special know which output driver it's addressing?
The TeXbook says that \special{…}is a special instruction to the output driver. But how do you know when you write the instruction which output driver will be reading it?
1
vote
1
answer
48
views
I want a code to rep a big matrix in row wise
\begin{align}
\begin{bmatrix}
\big| & \big| & \cdots & \big| \\
x_1 & x_2 & \cdots & x_{m-1} \\
\big| & \big| & \cdots & \big| \\
...
2
votes
0
answers
649
views
Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) for LaTeX
I would like to manipulate a LaTeX document in a program, e.g. add/change used packages or their options and adding environments.
Instead of doing this purely on the text level, it would be great to ...
0
votes
2
answers
94
views
How to collect texts and place all them together?
I am trying to create two commands:
A command \collect that stores a string/text.
A command \callcollection that call all these stored texts placed before the command (without any configuration, just ...
1
vote
1
answer
79
views
Is it a good practice to leave space before mathematical text? [duplicate]
I used to write equations in the following way:
Text
%Empty line
\[
code
\]
%Empty line
Text
I have noticed that with this syntax there is more space above the maths than beneath them. Is that ...
2
votes
1
answer
105
views
What is correct? `(-1)^a` or `{(-1)}^a`? [duplicate]
Essentially the title says it all.
The TeX linter ChkTeX recommends to group parentheses if sub-/superscripting. It makes the grouped content into an atom (my TeX knowledge is minimal), so it is ...
1
vote
0
answers
44
views
Good code style introduces whitespace in LaTeX [duplicate]
Suppose I have the following in a test1.tex file:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\section{A section with a very long title which goes beyond seventy-two columns in text editor}
\end{...
0
votes
0
answers
798
views
How to insert an image in this particular template (ICLR 2022)
Link to overleaf template: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/template-for-iclr-2021-conference-submission/mmpfhsxmqdkp
I tried this code:
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics{pipe....
2
votes
1
answer
243
views
plus sign not shown in exponent [closed]
I am writing in Latex in the github markdown as shown below.
Why is the plus sign not working in this example?
<img src="https://render.githubusercontent.com/render/math?math=P(X^{t + 1}) \...
4
votes
3
answers
152
views
Infix syntax with Unicode characters
Tex (and XeLaTeX) use what I would call prefix syntax for user-defined macros. For example, the macro \newcommand{\identity}[1]{#1} is used with the variables prefixed by the macro: \identity{vars}. ...
4
votes
1
answer
766
views
How is TeX syntactically organised?
I'm just starting out on TeX, and I wanted to find a directory or table of how TeX is arranged in syntax. I can make educated guesses, but I figured I'd be better self taught if I understood how ...
1
vote
0
answers
212
views
How to define a command in latex for capitalizing following text?
In latex there are commands that change the appearance of their argument, e.g. \textit{foo}.
Other commands change the appearance of the following text, without requiring an argument, e.g. \itshape ...
0
votes
1
answer
158
views
What are brackets do in new command definition?
In an article about defining new commands I saw an example
\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb{R}}
The set of real numbers are usually represented
by a blackboard bold capital r: \( \R \).
What do brackets \( ...
1
vote
1
answer
194
views
How to Make Index Recognize an Exclamation Point as Part of an Entry
I would like to add an entry in an index which makes use of an exclamation point as an article of grammar. However (of course), Latex treats it as if I want to begin a subentry.
Consider the following ...
0
votes
0
answers
101
views
TeXmaker syntax highlighting problems
can anyone tell me why TeXmaker is not coloring my code correctly?
For some reason everything below my \newcommandline is in text-colour.
When i paste my code into overleaf it works normally (https://...
0
votes
2
answers
801
views
Missing number, treated as zero (\hspace, I think)
At the outset let me say I am not even a LaTeX beginner - I know almost nothing. I have an .tex file named title.tex which was developed on a Windows platform and is used in an R markdown document ...
1
vote
0
answers
90
views
Could anyone explain to me syntax for longtable? [closed]
What does \begin{longtable}{@{}l*{9}{c}@{}} exactly mean?
3
votes
1
answer
204
views
Metapost: variable name with number at the end
Why can't I use variable names like a1, str2, x12? Does Metapost consider them as arrays so that a1 is like a[1] and so on? Even z-notation as z1, z2 and etc. does not work.
The code is
beginfig(1);
# ...
5
votes
4
answers
615
views
How to make commands with mandatory braces?
Partly inspired by this question, I got interested in the question of whether we could (hypothetically) switch to a new LaTeX syntax where braces around arguments were mandatory. That is, no more \...
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
MikTeX sources and LaTeX language
Am I right that MikTeX sources in C++ contain the code that opens .tex file (when I run latex.exe myfile.tex), reads it, parses commands, performs them if they are correct and logs error messages ...
0
votes
1
answer
107
views
Typing Brackets '[' ']' Within a Node in Tikz Q-Tree
I am trying to make a tree with Tikz Q-Tree wherein one of the nodes/the text shown needs to read: [+past]. However, brackets are used in the construction of the tree itself, so when I include them in ...
1
vote
1
answer
20
views
foreach syntax missing endcs.., tex cap exceeded
I want to draw points in a loop. x and y coordinates are given ( two variables). I think it is syntactically right, but tikz dont. Can anyone help?
mwe:
\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\...
0
votes
2
answers
182
views
Issue with curly brackets in beamer - why?
I am struggling with a macro which auto-generates some frames in beamer. While doing so I came across a situation I do not fully understand. My pedagogical examples boils down to the following:
\...
6
votes
3
answers
295
views
Using \boxed{} in \newenvironment{envname}{here}{and here}
There's a type of environment (shown below) which I'm using very frequently. I would like to define a new environment to begin it and end it with single commands.
\begin{equation}\boxed{\boxed{
\begin{...
3
votes
1
answer
224
views
double subscript error from auto-generated latex
This auto-generated latex from sagemath software generates error Double subscript
I wanted to report this to sagemath, but wanted to check first why this is showing up
Inside sagemath on Linux, I type
...
3
votes
2
answers
275
views
Tikz-cd Crossing Over Issue
I'm drawing a diagram and I want one specific line to be crossed over by all others that pass by it. I'll put the picture of my diagram below for you to see what I want.
So, the red arrow indicates ...
1
vote
2
answers
128
views
Overbrace on Powers
How can I make an overbrace on powers without it being buggy. Example:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{...