Questions tagged [syntax]
{syntax} is about the principles and construction of the (La)TeX language.
370
questions
-1
votes
1
answer
49
views
How to refer to specific paragraph with the custom reference name?
Consider the following structure:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\section{Section}
...
- 179
2
votes
2
answers
127
views
How to type a ~ symbol in grammar environment of syntax package?
The MWE is like the following. It does not work.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[nounderscore, rounded]{syntax}
\begin{document}
\begin{grammar}
<range> ::= <digit> `~' <digit>
...
- 37
1
vote
1
answer
29
views
How to repeat a terminal in grammar environment of syntax* package?
I want to type EBNF text in latex. The solution I found is to use the grammar environment of syntax* package.
But no word describes how to repeat a terminal in the doc.
The EBNF text I want to type is ...
- 37
0
votes
0
answers
59
views
How package I use for \dimexpr?
I need to use the command \dimexpr, but in my machine no have an package for it. My specific objective is write this string:
\newcommand{\cancelraizq}\[1]{
\sbox0{$ \displaystyle \sqrt{\vphantom{#...
- 101
0
votes
0
answers
35
views
symbol % how and when can I use ir? [duplicate]
I would have some explanation about the % symbols: what do it is intended for? where do I have to use it?
Is there a doc that explain it?
Thank you
Renato
- 851
0
votes
3
answers
43
views
Latex error: Package array Error: Illegal pream-token (3.5cm): c' used
I have a table that has this command.
\begin{table}[ht]
\centering
\centering\caption{Table features}
\begin{tabular}{ r{3.5cm} p{5.50cm} p{5.50cm} }
\toprule
& \multicolumn{1}{r}{} &...
- 39
0
votes
1
answer
28
views
Error in reproducing tex on sentence bracketing in gb4e [duplicate]
There is an error occurred when I tried to reproduce a tex document to produce sentence bracketing in gb4e.
This is the tex document, courtesy of Alan Munn:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{gb4e}
\...
- 143
4
votes
2
answers
111
views
Redefine the command \cite to be able to use an additional syntax
Background
The package amsrefs redefines the command \cite so that one can use the syntax "\cite{book-name}*{optional-argument}" to produce (essentially) the same output as the usual "\...
- 205
5
votes
1
answer
146
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 ...
- 50.9k
0
votes
1
answer
67
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 ...
- 341
0
votes
1
answer
104
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
91
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?
...
- 23
3
votes
2
answers
166
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 ...
- 133
1
vote
1
answer
78
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]{...
- 91
1
vote
1
answer
100
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 ...
- 665
0
votes
0
answers
24
views
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?
- 153
4
votes
1
answer
388
views
What was the reason behind using sqrt (square root) to name the nth root command? [closed]
Clearly talking about:
\sqrt[n]{x}
here!
- 87
1
vote
1
answer
123
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!
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
37
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 ...
- 1,023
1
vote
0
answers
51
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{\...
- 653
3
votes
1
answer
93
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, ...
- 31
1
vote
2
answers
333
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 ...
- 111
3
votes
3
answers
309
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 ...
- 205
2
votes
2
answers
692
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{...
- 213
1
vote
1
answer
53
views
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 ...
- 79
0
votes
1
answer
342
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 ...
- 39
3
votes
2
answers
204
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 ...
- 31
1
vote
1
answer
69
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 ...
- 25
4
votes
1
answer
350
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{...
- 5,027
0
votes
1
answer
74
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
285
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\...
- 111
1
vote
1
answer
74
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?
- 485
1
vote
1
answer
50
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| \\
...
- 45
2
votes
0
answers
818
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 ...
- 1,511
0
votes
2
answers
98
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 ...
- 143
1
vote
1
answer
83
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 ...
- 203
2
votes
1
answer
109
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 ...
- 1,251
1
vote
0
answers
45
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{...
- 1,594
0
votes
0
answers
903
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....
- 131
2
votes
1
answer
254
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}) \...
- 121
4
votes
3
answers
159
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}. ...
- 1,100
4
votes
1
answer
819
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 ...
- 169
1
vote
0
answers
277
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 ...
- 592
0
votes
1
answer
178
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 \( ...
- 153
1
vote
1
answer
204
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 ...
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0
votes
0
answers
119
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://...
- 35
0
votes
2
answers
913
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 ...
- 113
1
vote
0
answers
96
views
Could anyone explain to me syntax for longtable? [closed]
What does \begin{longtable}{@{}l*{9}{c}@{}} exactly mean?
- 33
3
votes
1
answer
224
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);
# ...
- 609
5
votes
4
answers
638
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 \...
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