TeX - TopAnswers

samcarter

[Happy Pig Day](https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/pig-day/)  
![document.png](/image?hash=2b395bf5403ef561a88b4e3f35d339c62c00fc70a25c81b7519aef9dfc41538d)

Jairo A. del Rio replying to marmot

Spanish translations are rather weird. Understandable, but weird (as if they were obtained via Google or Deepl). Fortunately, the Spanish version, unlike the Portuguese one, is neutral, but some Spaniards told me the "usted" is unusually formal for them (they prefer the more direct "tú" for "you" instead). Minutiae.

marmot replying to Jairo A. del Rio

Yes, I agree. IMHO they should just avoid touching the differential. In particular since they seem to be aware of the fact that different communities follow different conventions, and they want to be neutral: https://github.com/learnlatex/learnlatex.github.io/issues/112.

Jairo A. del Rio replying to marmot

Wrt italic differentials, I was talking about South America (sorry for the lack of context). Engineers here are stricter concerning standards. Mathematicians tend not to care too much about such details. Mmm, I'd better leave such generalizations to corpus linguistics as it's a matter of written usage, even when restricted to STEM.

marmot replying to Jairo A. del Rio

I agree. https://github.com/learnlatex/learnlatex.github.io/issues/70. IMHO it would have been nice if they had resolved that one before starting the translations.

Jairo A. del Rio replying to marmot

Oh, well, I didn't know about that part (I gave up on reading that page as I seldom use LaTeX now), but it makes sense if you put it that way. A comment about it in the GitHub page wouldn't harm.

marmot replying to Jairo A. del Rio

Well, I agree with the statement that one should not impose not standards on others, which is precisely why I have a major problem with what [learnlatex.org](https://www.learnlatex.org/) is doing. It would be great if they could refrain from propagating on particular way of typesetting differentials, the more so since they also write `\sin`, and not `sin`. And they are detailed enough to say "We’ve added one piece of manual spacing here: `\,` makes a thin space before the `dx`, which we need so it does not look like a product." (which is a somewhat strange statement on its own, what is it if it is not a product, maybe they could indicate what they think it is...).  
  
As for the statement that European engineers use upright differentials and American mathematicians italic ones: I disagree. Why? I have first hand information. And there are [many examples](https://web.ma.utexas.edu/users/a.debray/lecture_notes/).

Jairo A. del Rio replying to marmot

You should consider standards are not ubiquous (and thus not applicable to everyone) nor fixed in stone (they may and will change as time passes, so what you consider "incorrect" today may stop being so tomorrow). AFAIK and incidentally upright `d` is more popular among engineers than mathematicians here, but maybe things differ in the USA.

marmot replying to barbara beeton

Well, I think that we largely agree. I also know that there is no "one size fits all", and I am certainly not suggesting to impose anything on others. My only point is that I find it unfortunate that [learnlatex.org](https://www.learnlatex.org) makes a choice for newcomers. I would plea for either avoiding differential `d`s altogether, or mentioning that there can be pitfalls.

barbara beeton replying to marmot

I'm not trying to say that the upright "d" is wrong.  There are good reasons to use an upright "d".  But I was involved with publishing at the American Math Society for over 40 years; AMS has been in existence for nearly 150 years, publishing mathematics the whole time.  Before I retired, I examined publications covering that whole period, and only the italic form is seen until just a few years ago.  The upright "d" is now accepted as an author preference, as long as it is used consistently.  And Don Knuth's preference is evident in the Computer Modern font used for math variables, as demonstrated by the absence of an italic correction *only* for "d"; perhaps he never had an occasion where making a clear visual distinction made a difference.  I would like to examine usage through actual publishing history, and present that history without prejudice.  The sources I need to look at are available only in good academic libraries, and those are inaccessible at present.

marmot replying to barbara beeton

Well, I am not imposing how to typeset a differential `d` on anyone but if there is a very basic introduction in which they highlight a convention that is not the standard convention and do not mention that this can be a problem, then this is IMHO very unfortunate. They could just decide not to show formulae with a differential in it, or mention that there are at least two conventions around (with one of them being official). I am really really sad to see this. And I am sorry, it is *not* true that the italic `d` is "traditional among mathematicians"! I know that some are claiming this, but this is not the case, certainly not among all mathematicians. Maybe there is a subbranch, but the statement as it stands is simply wrong, sorry to say this so explicitly.

barbara beeton replying to marmot

While your analysis of the use of an italic "d" for differential is most likely true, it's also the case that Don Knuth uses the italic "d" in this way, as it's traditional among mathematicians.  When libraries are fully open again, I will continue to look into the practice, with the goal of writing an essay on the history.

marmot replying to Prabhjot Singh

I thought they were constructing it. I remember specifically a question on how to formulate things there. (But I must say that I am not too excited about this site. For instance, they use incorrect differential `d`s, probably just because there is one very loud person.)

Prabhjot Singh

learning in own language is a blessing.

Prabhjot Singh replying to marmot

Wah Wah. NIce.  I asked because learnlatex.org has no German language page.

marmot

For instance, [this lecture](https://www.tcs.uni-luebeck.de/de/mitarbeiter/tantau/lehre/lectures/LaTeXundTikZ-2015.pdf) is by someone, likely the only one, who understands Ti*k*Z.

marmot replying to Prabhjot Singh

Yes.

Prabhjot Singh

Is it true that TeX is being taught in schools in some parts of Europe?

निरंजन

@joulev because of your [this](https://topanswers.xyz/transcript?room=347&id=61447&year=2020&month=7#c61447) chat message which you had sent a long time ago, I came to know about learnlatex.org and its translation PRs. I am glad to declare that yesterday the site was enriched with another translation i.e. Marathi. This message is to thank you as the process started after your message :)

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

Thank you very much. I put a question to @Jack.

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

Can you please go to this chat room https://topanswers.xyz/meta?room=1 and explain your problem to @Jack ?

samcarter replying to Prabhjot Singh

Unfortunately this fragment of  log file does not cover the error you get. However it looks like your tex distribution is not really up-to-date, so maybe you have an old version of the tikzducks package?   
  
Can you maybe use the `Ask` button to start a new question and include there  
1) a small but compilable document that reproduces the problem to make sure we are talking about the same code  
2) the complete .log file of this minimal (non)working example  
3) specify what exactly you mean by "not working". Do I assume correctly that you get an error?

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

I have many questions with nick name Anonymous 1123. Now I want to log in with this acount (old acount). How can I do that?

CarLaTeX replying to samcarter

We win, undoubtedly

Prabhjot Singh replying to samcarter

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017/Debian) (preloaded format=pdflatex 2019.5.26)  26 FEB 2021 00:41
entering extended mode
 restricted \write18 enabled.
 %&-line parsing enabled.
**new.tex
(./new.tex
LaTeX2e <2017-04-15>
Babel <3.18> and hyphenation patterns for 84 language(s) loaded.
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/standalone/standalone.cls
Document Class: standalone 2015/07/15 v1.2 Class to compile TeX sub-files stand
alone
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifluatex.sty
Package: ifluatex 2016/05/16 v1.4 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO)
Package ifluatex Info: LuaTeX not detected.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/ifpdf.sty
Package: ifpdf 2017/03/15 v3.2 Provides the ifpdf switch
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/ifxetex/ifxetex.sty
Package: ifxetex 2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/xkeyval/xkeyval.sty
Package: xkeyval 2014/12/03 v2.7a package option processing (HA)

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/xkeyval/xkeyval.tex
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/xkeyval/xkvutils.tex
\XKV@toks=\toks14
\XKV@tempa@toks=\toks15

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/xkeyval/keyval.tex))
\XKV@depth=\count79
File: xkeyval.tex 2014/12/03 v2.7a key=value parser (HA)
))
\sa@internal=\count80
\c@sapage=\count81

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/standalone/standalone.cfg
File: standalone.cfg 2015/07/15 v1.2 Default configuration file for 'standalone
' class
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo
File: size10.clo 2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)
\c@part=\count82
\c@section=\count83
\c@subsection=\count84
\c@subsubsection=\count85
\c@paragraph=\count86
\c@subparagraph=\count87
\c@figure=\count88
\c@table=\count89
\abovecaptionskip=\skip41
\belowcaptionskip=\skip42
\bibindent=\dimen102
)
\sa@box=\box26
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/tikzducks/tikzducks.sty
Package: tikzducks 

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/xcolor/xcolor.sty
Package: xcolor 2016/05/11 v2.12 LaTeX color extensions (UK)

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/color.cfg
File: color.cfg 2016/01/02 v1.6 sample color configuration
)
Package xcolor Info: Driver file: pdftex.def on input line 225.

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-def/pdftex.def
File: pdftex.def 2018/01/08 v1.0l Graphics/color driver for pdftex
)
Package xcolor Info: Model `cmy' substituted by `cmy0' on input line 1348.
Package xcolor Info: Model `hsb' substituted by `rgb' on input line 1352.
Package xcolor Info: Model `RGB' extended on input line 1364.
Package xcolor Info: Model `HTML' substituted by `rgb' on input line 1366.
Package xcolor Info: Model `Hsb' substituted by `hsb' on input line 1367.
Package xcolor Info: Model `tHsb' substituted by `hsb' on input line 1368.
Package xcolor Info: Model `HSB' substituted by `hsb' on input line 1369.
Package xcolor Info: Model `Gray' substituted by `gray' on input line 1370.
Package xcolor Info: Model `wave' substituted by `hsb' on input line 1371.
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pgf/frontendlayer/tikz.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pgf/basiclayer/pgf.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pgf/utilities/pgfrcs.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/utilities/pgfutil-common.tex
\pgfutil@everybye=\toks16
\pgfutil@tempdima=\dimen103
\pgfutil@tempdimb=\dimen104

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/utilities/pgfutil-common-lists.t
ex)) (/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/utilities/pgfutil-latex.def
\pgfutil@abb=\box27
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/ms/everyshi.sty
Package: everyshi 2001/05/15 v3.00 EveryShipout Package (MS)
))
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/utilities/pgfrcs.code.tex
Package: pgfrcs 2015/08/07 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.31)
))
Package: pgf 2015/08/07 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.15)

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pgf/basiclayer/pgfcore.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphicx.sty
Package: graphicx 2017/06/01 v1.1a Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/graphics.sty
Package: graphics 2017/06/25 v1.2c Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics/trig.sty
Package: trig 2016/01/03 v1.10 sin cos tan (DPC)
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/graphics-cfg/graphics.cfg
File: graphics.cfg 2016/06/04 v1.11 sample graphics configuration
)
Package graphics Info: Driver file: pdftex.def on input line 99.
)
\Gin@req@height=\dimen105
\Gin@req@width=\dimen106
)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pgf/systemlayer/pgfsys.sty
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/systemlayer/pgfsys.code.tex
Package: pgfsys 2014/07/09 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.48)

(/usr/share/te

samcarter replying to Prabhjot Singh

Can you make a MWE and show your log file?

samcarter replying to Prabhjot Singh

This works for me  
```  
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikzducks}

\begin{document}
	
\begin{tikzpicture}
\duck[ 
  speech=\scalebox{0.4}{\parbox{2cm}{\color{black} \centering Happy Toast Day}}, 
  devil=green 
]
\end{tikzpicture}	
	
\end{document}  
```  
![document.png](/image?hash=3d40be84db83730423478c8c0196daae52560912446a33ffe178f273d26cdc1b)

Prabhjot Singh

\duck[
speech=\scalebox{0.4}{\parbox{2cm}{\color{black} 
\centering Happy Toast Day}},
devil=green
]
line with green word didn't work. Why?

Prabhjot Singh replying to samcarter

Thnaks.

samcarter replying to CarLaTeX

No :) You want to enter another participant to the "worst bureaucracy ever" contest?

samcarter replying to Prabhjot Singh

Happy toast day to you, too!

CarLaTeX replying to samcarter

Have you ever lived in Italy?

Prabhjot Singh

![duck.png](/image?hash=c1a4b687063f7d94f5cc17bd8123c9fe357c33e1b9d276984c427525fcb24d4c)

Anonymous 1123

I  have not enough knowledge to comment on [these comments](https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/549836/which-latex-packages-do-really-support-3d-points-manipulations-etc/583292#583292). Please help me understand these comments  (between [Money Oriented Programm](https://tex.stackexchange.com/users/87876/money-oriented-programmer ) and [Black Mild](https://tex.stackexchange.com/users/140722/black-mild).

samcarter replying to JeT

:) I thought we Germans had the monopole on bureaucracy

JeT replying to samcarter

Of course not !! People were changing the timestamp on the paper while they were outside  so it had to be pencil written... If there were a TopAnswersBureaucracy, it could be in French...

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

Apparently I might have misunderstood your request. Could you head over to the other chatroom https://topanswers.xyz/transcript?room=1&id=89275#c89275 and clarify if you want to change the name of your current account or gain access to your old one?

samcarter replying to JeT

What a huge waste of paper. Couldn't they make them reusable?

JeT replying to samcarter

I saw that !! Insane !! but guess what... after  (at least) 200 printed pages I've never had one single control in Paris since it all began.

samcarter replying to JeT

How people handle these forms seems to be an interesting character study. The creator of one of the podcasts I follow released a video showing his wife and him making handwritten copies of the form because they don't have a printer. One of them copied the text word by word, the other only wrote the first couple of words from each paragraph :)

JeT replying to samcarter

The covid paper as an application of fillable  pdf is so "a propos" :)

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

Thank you very much.

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

I let @Jack know about your problem https://topanswers.xyz/transcript?room=1&id=89195#c89195  
Let's see if he can help

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

At this website, my nick is Anonymous 1123.

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

That's great! Jack might be able to merge your accounts. I'll ping him in the Tavern

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

Yes .  In https://tex.stackexchange.com/, I login by facebook.

joulev replying to Anonymous 1123

This one worked for me.  
  
![blob](/image?hash=c6dcff338985c210d1637e6716977f3d8b3c2a7e28b8cca4f9e0f56084e8b9fa)

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

Did you link your old account to an stackexchange account?

Anonymous 1123

I have set up my computer. How can I login with old username?

samcarter

[Happy Pink Day](https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/pink-day/)  
![document.png](/image?hash=e3c92e40174e47e6b6b2bf6ed91a4dd8d225eb99d4bf8292e6b63b758f0936d7)