Reverting to earlier LaTeX picture environment for compilation with TexLive 2020?

Question

I have written a document in Overleaf that I wish to submit to arXiv. The document compiles fine on Overleaf with TexLive 2021, but fails when uploading to arXiv.

From what I understand arXiv compiles documents with TexLive 2020. When switching Overleaf's TexLive version to 2020, the compilation of my document also fails. I successively removed portions of my document until I've found what seems to be the issue. Namely, Overleaf (nor arXiv) apparently can't compile a document with a simple \begin{picture} \end{\picture} environment with TexLive 2020.

Specifically, the following code fails to compile in a simple document on Overleaf with TexLive version 2020.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\title{dumb_example}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure*}
\begin{picture}(\columnwidth, \columnwidth)
\put(1, 1){help}
\end{picture}
\end{figure*}
\end{document}

After stumbling across David Carlisle's comment in this question, it appears that the picture environment was recently updated, and is presumably no longer compatible with the either Overleaf's TexLive 2020 or arXiv's TexLive 2020.

My goal here is really to submit this darn thing to arXiv, and the picture environment is essential to the figures in the paper so doing without it isn't really an option. That said, is there a way to force LaTeX to use the older version of the picture environment during compilation that will allow it to compile with TexLive 2020?

Answer 1

Adding

\usepackage(picture}

should give you a compatible version.

Note that forcing the old version wouldn't do what you want, as you are using new syntax (you could not use lengths such as \columnwidth in the original implementation). Heiko's picture package implemented a version of the picture environment commands that accepted lengths long before we added that to the format, so if you use the picture package in the document it should work even for very old releases (The package has been in texlive since 2006)