{tex-core} is for questions that are independent of formats and macro packages. Such questions usually relate to low-level TeX programming or the behaviour of TeX at an underlying level. Note that even Plain TeX is a format in itself; for questions about it, use {plain-tex}.
10
votes
1answer
123 views
How to install or replace fonts in old TeX files?
I got interested in a research paper from 1991, which I cannot get an electronic online version of. The author was kind enough to send me his tex sources, but is himself unable to produce a pdf file ...
1
vote
1answer
52 views
How to check if a fragile macro value is empty or will not create text with plain TeX conditionals?
A similar question has been already asked here, but has not been answered yet for fragile commands such as eg. \@author?
What would be the right way to get detect if \author has been called with a ...
4
votes
3answers
259 views
How could the macro xii.tex be simplified into a better readable form
I was reading some TeX guides from where I have found this source:
\let~\catcode~`76~`A13~`F1~`j00~`P2jdefA71F~`7113jdefPALLF
PA''FwPA;;FPAZZFLaLPA//71F71iPAHHFLPAzzFenPASSFthP;A$$FevP
...
4
votes
1answer
78 views
representing literal characters in a \newcommand or \def
Consider this short LaTeX document:
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T2A]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[russian]{babel}
\def\name{...}
\begin{document}
Hello: \name
...
3
votes
2answers
87 views
List of tokens from TeX mouth
Is it possible to get list of tokens which comes from TeX "mouth"? If I understand correctly: in mouth all macros, conditionals and special operations (like \the and \input) are expanded and then goes ...
2
votes
1answer
87 views
How to check if token is a macro?
I am thinking about possibility to parse LaTeX document. What I really need is to track category codes of symbols. As I understand TeX expands all of macros in his mouth and tracks changes of category ...
22
votes
1answer
247 views
What does list mean in relation to skip? (What is David on about?)
In two previous question When is it good practice to use \unskip and What is a token? the default meaning of token in LaTeX and the behaviour of \unskip were asked. However in the first question was ...
16
votes
2answers
319 views
When is it good practice to use \unskip
One sees in source2e the command \unskip used in various places. My understanding in general terms is that the macro is the equivalent of \ignorespacesbehind.
Where would it be recommended to use ...
31
votes
2answers
379 views
What is a token?
Please forgive such a basic question, but I did some Google searching and looked around on this site, and while there are many threads and online resources that involve tokens, I can't seem to find a ...
10
votes
1answer
87 views
(Re)definition of commands that use delimiters other than braces (e.g. \underbrace)
How do you go about redefining a command such as \underbrace, which uses an "uncommon" delimiter, i.e. _, between its two arguments, so that the redefined command be usable in exactly the same way as ...
8
votes
1answer
87 views
Why doesn't \mathord work to turn an Acc atom into Ord?
Writing ${\dot X^a}^b$ produces a very cryptic "double superscript" error: this has been explained here on this forum: the reason is that {\dot X}^a generates an Acc atom and that, for a reason that ...
1
vote
0answers
39 views
How to break long expressions automatically in displaymode? [duplicate]
Whenever an expression is too long, it will be broken automatically in inline mode but done nothing in displaymode
E.g.
MWE:
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\begin{document}
...
14
votes
3answers
207 views
Parsing strings containing diacritical marks (macros?)
I apologize that this question may seem very much like several other recent ones I have asked (Parsing leading hardspaces, Parsing a \$ as part of an improved \getargs command). They are all related ...
6
votes
1answer
82 views
Macros in \special
I tried to compute a bounding box in LaTeX and pass the value on to dvisvgm via DVI specials. The resulting code (which I copy-and-pasted together from all over the internet) looked as follows:
...
0
votes
0answers
41 views
$*$ versus \(*\), which is better? [duplicate]
In LaTeX, $*$ and \(*\) both introduce inline math mode; but are they identical?
By this question \[*\] is better than $$*$$, so do $*$ and \(*\) in the same story?
5
votes
2answers
104 views
Variadic arguments macro
I am trying to make macro with variadic arguments, iterating over them.
The final result is supposed to be:
\foreach[x]((var = \x )){foo}{bar}{baz}\null
evals to
var = foo var = bar var = baz
My ...
6
votes
3answers
186 views
Why are some characters not allowed in command sequences
From my understanding a control sequence is ended by any non-alphabetic character such that \mycsA is one token, but \mycs1 is two tokens. This means things like starred commands \mycs* are actually ...
2
votes
0answers
207 views
How to edit the LaTeX path in LyX on Windows (x64)
I was using MiKTeX 2.9 (x64) on my Win 7 machine for some time with TeXnicCenter. Now I tried to install LyX on the same PC. The problem I get is Lyx does find neither latex.exe nor sees all the other ...
7
votes
2answers
105 views
Is there a way of defining a command \nullifyifmoved{arg} that will normally act like its argument but act like a no-op if the macro is “moved”?
I'm interested in a macro \nullifyifmoved that takes one argument arg and acts like arg in normal contexts, except it acts like a no-op wherever it is written to a file. Some background:
Martin ...
11
votes
2answers
221 views
How does math mode work?
When writing an a in TeX, it is typeset as an upright "a" by default. When writing an a in math mode it is typeset in italics. Furthermore, in math mode white spaces are ignored and no empty lines ...
5
votes
3answers
101 views
Metacommand for commands that dynamically select a parameter?
Original question
I would like to create a metacommand for creating new projection commands. Specifically, \newproj{\cmd}{<n>}{<m>} should create \cmd as a new command of <n> ...
12
votes
1answer
173 views
Am I programmatically tieing my hands behind my back by insisting on a particular engine?
I've read Differences between LuaTeX, ConTeXt and XeTeX, but still have a niggle at the back of my mind that I'd like to ask about.
I'm developing a LaTeX package/class/stuff with the aim of making ...
4
votes
3answers
167 views
How are space tokens and empty lines processed by long commands (as their potential arguments)?
How are spaces and empty lines processed by long commands (i.e., those that do not accept paragraph breaks inside)? Are there different space tokens aside from " " and an empty line? It appears that ...
19
votes
3answers
246 views
If I redefine a command that has a starred variant, will that always disable the starred variant?
If I redefine a command that has a starred variant, will this always effectively disable the starred variant, as a side effect of redefining the unstarred variant?
A related question: Do starred ...
3
votes
1answer
75 views
FMT to CLS Creation in LaTeX
A Few years back we have created fmt format through PDFTEX. Now we have need to update some points in the class file. It is possible again to create fmt to .cls or .dtx files?
2
votes
0answers
54 views
font loading via URL for all TeX-en
Firstly, I'm not asking about typesetting URLs. What I am talking about is font resolution via a URL reference. My limited experience is in using XeLaTeX so I'll couch the question accordingly. If you ...
23
votes
4answers
322 views
unexpected interaction between \raggedright and \parshape
While answering Random start of line, I came upon a strange interaction between \raggedright and \parshape.
If a ragged-right paragraph ends in a short line, this line will be "the most ragged".
...
8
votes
1answer
126 views
Which commands exist to define new commands?
Which commands are there that one can use to define new commands in (La)TeX?
There are: \let, \def, \[re]newcommand[*], \DeclareRobustCommand[*], and ...?
(And I've seen things like ...
11
votes
2answers
108 views
Is there any reason to define a zero-argument macro using a starred defining command?
Is there any reason to define a 0-argument (read: zero-argument) macro with a starred command (\newcommand* instead of \newcommand or \DeclareRobustCommand* instead of \DeclareRobustCommand)? After ...
13
votes
2answers
268 views
What is “plain TeX”?
I occasionally see a statement that plain TeX is not the same as TeX, because plain TeX is already a format.
What is plain TeX, and what is the difference to TeX proper?
Some answers are here (The ...
6
votes
5answers
272 views
What sequence of documents should I read to know “all of” TeX and then LaTeX?
I know that there are a already number of questions on this site about good instructional (La)TeX materials for users at different levels.
What I am interested in, though, is what set of documents ...
15
votes
4answers
361 views
Selectively suppress generation of typeset output
Is it possible put TeX into a "mute" mode in which all typesetting is suppressed?
\documentclass{article}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\suppress
This text will not be seen in the generated ...
4
votes
1answer
123 views
\vbox with some extra space below
I don't understand why when using \vbox of a certain height, there is some extra space added below it.
I'm trying - towards grid typesetting - to put for example graphics in the vbox of a certain ...
17
votes
3answers
284 views
When is it better to use \par than \endgraf?
Just yesterday I had to patch a package file (changing the description to indicate that the file had changed) to replace some \par to \endgraf because the code had bad interactions with non-\long ...
15
votes
3answers
507 views
\string command behavior - Plain TeX
I would like to learn Plain TeX and I'm reading Knuth's "The TeXBook". At Chapter 7, Knuth talks about the \string command and how it converts control sequences into lists of characters tokens.
Why ...
11
votes
2answers
243 views
What does \relax do? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How can I speed up LaTeX compilation?
What is the difference between \relax and {}?
The title suggest the question. On and off, I see macros here in TeX.SE and I see ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Expanding subscript and subscript capabilities
Well, I liked the idea expressed in the question alternative syntax of subscripts using tex. But I want it to work in a sightly different way.
I just want to expand the usual _ and ^. How? So that ...
4
votes
2answers
160 views
alternative syntax of subscripts using tex
I would like to sometimes write subscripts using different syntax, instead of $u_{xx} blahblah$ write something like
$u⎵xx blah blah$, or even
$u⎵xx+blah blah$
where either space following the x ...
15
votes
3answers
200 views
Is it possible to interact with TeX mid-process?
Quoting from an answer to Typesetting the entire Song That Never Ends
I ran this code once, and aborted the process after it reported producing something like 47,000 pages (in a very short amount ...
10
votes
2answers
185 views
All (La)TeX warnings and errors
For testing purposes, I am looking for a comprehensive list of all errors and warnings that TeX, and LaTeX can output. I don't mean errors and warnings produced by all packages, as this would give an ...
8
votes
3answers
127 views
Questions on macro writing in TeX to modify an existing style file: fancybox.sty
I've decided that I must become more adept at TeX if I'm to become proficient with LaTeX. While this is probably obvious to most readers who pass by, my ability to muddle through has hidden this small ...
22
votes
2answers
354 views
“That makes 100 errors” and one question
Although I never make any misteyk, occasionally I compile a TeX file in non-stop mode (that's how I roll) so wonderful that it just starts stuttering and spits out this
and provides some moral ...
25
votes
2answers
769 views
What language is TeX implemented in?
I read on Wikipedia that the first version of TeX was written in SAIL. However, does anyone know what language later versions (i.e the current one) are implemented in?
7
votes
3answers
169 views
When to use or avoid grouping?
For writing my own TeX code, grouping (\begingroup, \endgroup) helps on automatically saving and restoring TeX "variables".
(La)TeX "variables" are either macros or registers. The registers can
...
9
votes
1answer
287 views
Computer Modern font with accented characters (in XeTeX)
I'd like to use Knuth's Computer Modern font with XeTeX (not with XeLaTeX and so not with a LaTeX package) in a way where I don't have to type accents in a \'-way and without any gimmick such as ...
2
votes
1answer
141 views
Type my own font style onto my computer!
How can I use plain TeX & metafont to attain my own font-style, i.e. I want to type the words I write by my hand.
15
votes
3answers
576 views
Starting with TeX (not LaTeX)
I've been using LaTeX for 3 years and I'm decided to switch to (plain) TeX. For the moment I'm reading The TeXbook for the third time (I quietly start to read the double-danger signed paragraphs) and ...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
inlineMath \$…\$ not working but default \(…\) does [closed]
I am having issues getting a custom inlineMath format to work.
I have included the MathJax CDN and then using the in-line configuration options. I can get all of the default formats to work $$...$$, ...
7
votes
1answer
262 views
All LaTeX commands list
I'm writing a LaTeX commands highlighter in C#, for this I need all or most of the LaTeX commands.
I've searched the web and found many lists of commands but all of them are with comments and ...
8
votes
2answers
144 views
Where to find official (!) and extended documentation for tex/latex's commandline options (especially -interaction modes)?
Today I tried to learn more about the several interaction modes for tex/latex/pdflatex etc. The manpages turned out to be not very helpful:
$ man tex
...
-interaction mode
Sets the ...
