TeX - TopAnswers

samcarter

[Happy Hat Day](https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/hat-day/)  
![document.png](/image?hash=885e031958273a0aa8edf04a7607ccfa2d31f355b559833711a628182f0369e4)

barbara beeton replying to Anonymous 1123

"Value added" services have always been accepted and permitted.  For example, the PCTeX and BlueSky implementations of TeX, which involved considerable work to accomplish, were both recognized and accepted by Knuth.  I'd say that Overleaf's services are acceptable under this criterion -- what is provided here is use of facilities and enabling of cooperative work by subscribers, as well as support by knowledgeable individuals paid for their work.  
I don't know the details of the tool based on TikZ, so won't try to judge.

samcarter replying to CarLaTeX

Happy rubber duckie day to you too!

CarLaTeX

Happy rubber duckie day to everybody! https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/rubber-duckie-day/

Diaa replying to Anonymous 1123

I don't see it is different from building a program in C language for example then sell it.  
You don't have to pay to learn C but you can legally monetize your knowledge of it.

marmot replying to Anonymous 1123

I think it is legally allowed. If it is morally the right thing to do is another question, but recall also that Overleaf is basically doing the same: they sell online compilation LaTeX services. Different people have different views on whether this is something one should do. My personal take is that Prof. Knuth and others offer us all these tools for free and it is at least questionable if someone provides services entirely reliant on these free tools for profit.

Anonymous 1123

I heard someone base on TikZ to create a tool, then sells this tool. Is this allowed?

samcarter

[Happy Milk Day!](https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/milk-day/)  
![document.png](/image?hash=b47c5c566c7b776e188ddde5583c7d1b42239b677923474f85e977c9a3888828)

Diaa

Is there anyone who has enough knowledge with both linux and windows to help me with my question https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/578144/2288 before importing it here?

Raaja replying to Prabhjot Singh

Thnx

marmot replying to Diaa

It is not a LaTeX package but just Mathematica. https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/

Diaa replying to marmot

Would you please share its link? I couldn't find it.

marmot replying to Diaa

In my humble opinion there is only one package which deals reliably with most mathematical operations, and this is Mathematica. The LaTeX support of this package has considerable room for improvement, but at least in principle there is some.

Diaa

Does anyone know a package that enables doing complex mathematical operations (except sage) without the need for external compilation from another software?

Prabhjot Singh

btw A happy and warm year to all of you.

Prabhjot Singh

 [link](https://adityam.github.io/context-blog/post/interfacing-with-julia/ ) for latex and Julia. :

Raaja

Idd that's true, but I would also like to know your experiences with it (if any).

marmot replying to Raaja

I have no experience but if you google `julia pgfplots` you get several hits such as [this one](https://juliapackages.com/p/pgfplots). I believe to vaguely remember having seen some questions on this in TeX.se.

Raaja

I recently heard from one of my colleague someone made a nice interface between latex and julia so that julia can use latex to make plots. Does any one of have heard/used it in julia? PS: Julia is a programming language.

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

Yes. It  is a matter of philosophy imho. I use the way to teach secondary school.

Anonymous 1123 replying to samcarter

Thank you very much.

samcarter replying to Anonymous 1123

You can also write `\SI{0.5}{\kilo\metre\per\hour}` - which one to use is a matter of philosophy imho

Anonymous 1123

@Joseph I  use `siunitx` package. Am I true when I type  $\SI{ 0.5}{km/h} $?

samcarter replying to marmot

:D

marmot replying to samcarter

> many people now picked up bird watching as their hobby   
  
Very reasonable given that marmots are hibernating in their burrows. :smile_cat:

samcarter replying to barbara beeton

Amazing story! Thanks for sharing the link! It is so refreshing to read news about happy people. Nice that a little bird can bring so much joy to all these people.   
I recently listed to a podcast about life in Paris during the pandemic. During lockdown a lot of different birds have conquered (back) the city and the podcast said that many people now picked up bird watching as their hobby :)

barbara beeton

@samcarter -- When I first signed up here, you asked what I had chosen for an avatar, and I identified it as a painted bunting.  Well, here's a report of an actual sighting, much out of normal range, and the poor thing is all fluffed up on account of the cold: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/03/painted-bunting-great-falls-bird-watchers/

justonly

https://i.imgur.com/CkwmJ0a.gif  
https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/554290/213378
```  
  import animate;
settings.tex="pdflatex"; 
settings.outformat="pdf"; 

animation Ani;
import graph;
size(200);
pair[] P={(2,4),(0,0),(6.5,0.5),(1,-3.2)};
real t=0;
pair f(real t){return (1-t)^3*P[0]+3*(1-t)^2*t*P[1]+3*(1-t)*t^2*P[2]+t^3*P[3];}
for (int i=0; i<=20; ++i){
t=i/20;
save();
pair A=interp(P[0],P[1],t);
pair B=interp(P[1],P[2],t);
pair C=interp(P[2],P[3],t);
pair U=interp(A,B,t);
pair V=interp(B,C,t);
pair W=interp(U,V,t);
draw(P[0]--P[1]--P[2]--P[3],pink);
draw(A--B--C,( i != 0 ) ? green+0.7bp : invisible);
draw(U--V,( i != 0 ) ? blue+0.7bp : invisible);
draw(graph(f,0,t),red+1.3bp);
dot(P,magenta);
dot(A^^B^^C,( i != 0 ) ? green : invisible);
dot(U^^V,( i != 0 ) ? blue : invisible);
dot(W,pink);
Ani.add();
restore();
}
for (int i=20; i>=0; --i){
t=i/20;
save();
pair A=interp(P[0],P[1],t);
pair B=interp(P[1],P[2],t);
pair C=interp(P[2],P[3],t);
pair U=interp(A,B,t);
pair V=interp(B,C,t);
pair W=interp(U,V,t);
draw(P[0]--P[1]--P[2]--P[3],pink);
draw(A--B--C,( i != 0 ) ? green+0.7bp : invisible);
draw(U--V,( i != 0 ) ? blue+0.7bp : invisible);
draw(graph(f,0,t),red+1.3bp);
dot(P,magenta);
dot(A^^B^^C,( i != 0 ) ? green : invisible);
dot(U^^V,( i != 0 ) ? blue : invisible);
dot(W,pink);
Ani.add();
restore();
}
erase();
Ani.movie(BBox(3mm,Fill(black)));
```

marmot replying to samcarter

You're welcome! I think one can improve it by using a `standaloneframe`. (Interestingly it seems that an `xsavebox` eats the fadings.)

samcarter replying to marmot

Very nice! Thanks for sharing!

marmot replying to justonly

May I persuade you to edit   
https://topanswers.xyz/tex?q=1587  
in particular the Asymptote and PSTricks parts?

marmot replying to Joseph Wright

Happy New Year! May I persuade you to edit   
https://topanswers.xyz/tex?q=1587  
in particular the `l3draw` part?

marmot

... but it does show that the answer you got is a tiny bit off, and that it is possible. Now one would have to prettify things. (I think `makecell` does such things but I am not sure.)

marmot replying to Anonymous 1535

This is not pretty but a proof of principle.  
```  
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[margin=1.25in]{geometry}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}
\usepackage{multirow}

\title{}
\author{}
\date{}

\begin{document}
    \begin{table}[H]
      \centering
	  \begin{tabular}{@{}lm{3cm}|}
      \hline
      \begin{tabularx}{\dimexpr\textwidth-3cm-2\arraycolsep}{|p{2cm}|X|}
        \textbf{Participant} & \textbf{Answer}
	  \end{tabularx} & \textbf{Themes} \\
        \hline\hline
	  \begin{tabularx}{\dimexpr\textwidth-3cm-2\arraycolsep}{|p{2cm}|X|}	
        Short text here & I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think \\
        \hline
        Short text here & test \\
        \hline
        Short text here & test \\
        \hline
        Short text here & test \\
        \hline
        Short text here & test \\
      \end{tabularx} & something here \\
        \hline
	 \end{tabular} 
    \end{table}
\end{document}
```  
![Screen Shot 2021-01-01 at 9.07.59 AM.png](/image?hash=bcf00e434e694b97dd428a50a89cf982ea47bc9bf96b3fc435bf138bf2d170a3)

Anonymous 1535 replying to marmot

Yes, I did. But the given answer uses multirow{9.5} and says to count the number of lines to e.g. get 9.5. Is there no automatic way for that?

marmot replying to Anonymous 1535

You want "something here" vertically centered?

Anonymous 1535

With this question https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/577144/use-multiple-rows-along-with-vertical-centering, is there no automatic solution?

marmot replying to samcarter

With the Ti*k*Zling package. :smile_cat:  
```  
\documentclass[tikz,border=0mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikzlings}
\usetikzlibrary{fadings}
\newsavebox\Koala
\sbox{\Koala}{\begin{tikzpicture}
\koala
\end{tikzpicture}}
\begin{tikzfadingfrompicture}[name=2021]
\node [text=transparent!20] {\Large\bfseries2021};
\end{tikzfadingfrompicture}
\begin{document}
\def\myN{50}
\edef\iloop{0}
\loop
\pgfmathsetmacro{\dx}{(rnd-0.5)*4}%
\pgfmathsetmacro{\dy}{(rnd-0.5)*20}%
\ifnum\iloop=0
 \edef\lstx{\dx}
 \edef\lsty{\dy}
\else
 \edef\lstx{\lstx,\dx}
 \edef\lsty{\lsty,\dy}
\fi
\edef\iloop{\the\numexpr\iloop+1}%
\ifnum\iloop<\numexpr\myN+1\repeat 
\foreach \myn in {0,...,\myN}
{\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[red,fill=black](-1,-1.4) rectangle (1,1.4);
\foreach \X in {0,...,\myn}	
{\pgfmathsetmacro{\dx}{{\lstx}[\X]}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\dy}{{\lsty}[\X]}
\shade[path fading=2021,fit fading=false,
	fading transform={yshift=\dy mm,xshift=\dx mm}]
	node{\usebox\Koala};}
\end{tikzpicture}}
\end{document}
````  
There are certainly things that can be improved, e.g. employing beamer mechanisms. One cannot convert this directly to an annmated gif but needs `pdftoppm` to create bitmaps,  
```  
pdftoppm multi.pdf ppm_pic  
```   
and then e.g.  
```  
convert -density 300 -delay 64 -loop 0 -alpha remove ppm-pic*.ppm animated.gif  
```

samcarter replying to marmot

wow! How did you create this?

CarLaTeX replying to marmot

Great! Happy new year to everybody!

marmot

![animated.gif](/image?hash=b7ce9dca644a3844ff8d02bf2ecd9703dff2f980280db0bd6bf15d8aede2e036)

Raaja

Happy new year ;)

samcarter

Happy new year to all of you!

samcarter

![silvester.gif](/image?hash=21af101c2967255184a945a87d542ad1061c077d9c970f45bf4ff15d41799fa8)

Diaa replying to JeT

You must have missed best of the best of 😁

JeT replying to Diaa

I have a full folder of Marmot's best-of :)

Diaa replying to marmot

You should work on collecting your tikz legacy. It is sad to find that I can't get back to your answers on tex.sx easily. Anyway, that mentioned site is founded by a single person not an entity. So, I hope to find your contributions kept well somewhere. Cheers to your marmots 😊

marmot replying to Diaa

No, `.com` sites are not that attractive to me. I am more a fan of `.org` sites, see e.g. [marmots.org](https://marmots.org). Maybe the folks at [marmot.com](https://www.marmot.com) are interested in contributing. :smile_cat:

Diaa

@marmot have you considered contributing to this website? https://latexdraw.com/

Diaa replying to JeT

Now, I know whom I will ask before marmot :D