LaTeX programming should be reduced to three use cases:
- providing additional functionality
- conforming to a particular design / typesetting specification
- shorthand convenience / domain-specific markups created by the authors
The first should be files coming from CTAN and well documented and maintained by the developer, the second should be done by a typesetter _after_ the text is done so as to prepare a document for final format publication, the latter should be maintained by the authors, and the meaning of each macro obvious enough that minimal documentation and maintenance should be needed.
The second instance should be coded so that it's input by a single file, and may be harmlessly commented out (worst case is one has an initial version of the file which does nothing but defines all \newcommands needed as \relax, then in the real version, input after that, only \renewcommand is used), reverting the document to typical LaTeX / Computer Modern formatting so that it can be returned to the author.
The AutoCAD angle is interesting --- since I've just gotten a Shapeoko CNC mill up and running, I'll have to look into it --- are there any opensource CAD programs which would work thus?
Emacs won't work for me, I prefer a stylus over a keyboard, and what I really want is the ability to draw w/ the stylus and tweak the dimensions using numbers at need.
If you can upload that style file (tcilatex.sty? it's been a while since I had a Scientific Workplace job) into the system, then yes, you'll be able to work in your comfortable GUI, upload your mangled files filled w/ ugly little hacks and others will be able to edit them. So long as none of your collaborators are offended enough by the ugly little bits which SWP adds to the source to take them out, you'll be able to d/l their changes and continue to work in SWP.
Really though, you should dump all your files to plain LaTeX, import them into LyX and try that. It's a much better program.
I work in publishing, so use it quite a bit for any.pdf manipulation which isn't suited to pdftk, and which justifies it (as opposed to using Enfocus PitStop). Examples:
- in-house ad design system for HS ads in phone books
- batch processing ads to add a yellow or white background, or to scale them, sometimes asymmetrically
- batch print graphics w/ filenames --- one instance of that was a several thousand page government publication
- print processed graphics side-by-side w/ the original to make proofreading easier (while I worked up an AppleScript which would page forward in both.pdfs displayed in Adobe Acrobat w/ a single click people never used it)
- unreleased system for creating galley versions of magazine / journal articles when the source text was in Typo3
- custom typesetting system for custom story books, since taken off-line
LyX is the most innovative opensource tool I've found yet, and one of the most effective --- the book manuscripts which I get which are submitted by LyX users are the cleanest, and most straight-forward, making for the most profitable typesetting jobs.
I really wish that there were a similar vector graphics tool --- I want something which is parametric and shows both drawn vector and under-lying code and which allows one to edit either representation.
The thing that kills me is that for a long while, the Fujitsu tablets had specific cradles for holding hard drives so that they could be swapped out w/ a single screw --- but that feature went away w/ the ST-4100 or thereabouts.
I really miss it, and would be glad of the option of doing that on a newer device.
Yeah, I had occasion to use machines w/ fairly similar hardware specs (internal-clock multiplied 25MHz bus CPUs) running Windows 95, Mac OS 7 and NeXTstep 3.1 --- only the NeXT Cube would be considered usable by today's standards (and if it were still running, I'd still be using WriteNow to draft written correspondence and poste.app to print envelopes).
I really wish Apple had preserved more of NeXTstep in Mac OS X, or that there were easily accessible options to strip down the features to a parity w/ OPENSTEP 4.2 --- the performance of which on 200MHz+ machines was unbelievable.
Opensource, inexpensive buy-in (a bit more than $300 to start), lots of documented upgrades (working on a driveshaft, double Makerslide X-axis and 1 meter Y-axis for mine).
All you need is a dust collector to keep things clean.
- one doesn't get tired of hydroponically grown food and one can keep the water and air cycle going
- one can prevent anyone from coming up the gravity well and launching a nuke
- and no one stands up and refuses to cross the line in the sand
Heinlein touched on all of these in _Space Cadet_, _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ and _Starship Troopers_ --- there was a very good line about how trying to keep the peace w/ nukes was like trying to keep discipline in a kindergarden class w/ nothing but a loaded shotgun.
Infallibility is only when speaking _ex cathedra_, ``that is, when in the discharge of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, and by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority.''
If one has stepped down from the office, it no longer applies.
Choosing Phillips over Robertson screws was done for two reasons:
- cost --- Robertson wanted more money for licensing
- mechanics --- a Phillips driver will ``cam out'' when it hits bottom, making triggering the retraction of the tool easy, a Robertson requires a more sophisticated system to measure the torque, stop applying force, then pull out
As has been discussed here in the past, the video feeds are uncompressed.
How much would it cost to build a system w/ a radio system which would constantly monitor the radio frequencies used to transmit drone video feeds, display any which are found on a monitor, sound an audio alarm and begin streaming said video feeds off-site?
How would the public react to every such drone strike / usage being recorded and made available on-line?
These aren't servers --- they're low-power, mobile machines --- ``run ancient old Windows programs'', not ``load ancient old Windows programs and watch the wait hourglass come up more often than it did on a 486SX/25'' --- if the software can't be run quickly enough to make using it worthwhile, it's not worth it.
I don't want chunky and heavy --- I see no reason to haul around a keyboard and optical drive I almost never use (I have docking stations for when I want to use it at a desk at work or home) and it wouldn't fit in my favourite laptop bag which I've been using for about 2 decades now, and don't want to replace.
Because I'm currently using a Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and need to keep my Wacom stylus --- I use it for:
- annotating.pdfs
- drawing and sketching using ArtRage, Autodesk SketchBook, FutureWave SmartSketch, Creaturehouse Expression and Macromedia FreeHand
- designing fonts using FontForge
- lightweight programming using Runtime Revolution (I find drawing interface elements easier w/ the stylus)
- writing papers using LyX and WinTeXshell which are then typeset using LaTeX (I prefer to write rather than type)
- notetaking w/ handwriting recognition using Evernote
If the Surface Pro had longer battery life or a replaceable battery, I'd get one. If it's possible to run Mac OS X on it, I'd be tempted, until then, I guess I'm back to pricing a larger SSD for my current machine.
We understand the interactions of gravity --- we don't understand it well enough to control it:
- no artificial gravity for space voyages --- freefall or centrifuge
- no ability to locally disable or lower it --- have to fake it in a tank or ride the vomit comet
Look at Buck Rogers for some ideas on what gravity technology might result in.
A later development was Borland's ObjectVision --- there was even provision for loading ObjectVision files into other more sophisticated Borland environments if memory serves.
NeXTstep of course had Interface Builder and Project Builder around that time as well.
Actually, the commons was a well-established principle and was pretty standard across much of the world. Certainly it figured large in America's Anglo-Saxon history.
Passages from H.G. Wells' _Outline of History_ (which was pretty much the research notes for his science fiction novels)
``This was the moral atmosphere of the time, and those Lords and gentlemen who grabbed the people's commons assumed possession of the mines under their lands and crushed down the Yeoman farmers and peasants to the status of pauper laborers, had no idea that they were living anything but highly meritorious lives.''
``Came the vague humanitarianism and dreamy vanity of the Tsar Alexander, came teh shaken Hapsburgs of Austria, the resentful Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the aristocratic traditions of Britain, still badly frightened by the revolution and its conscience all awry with stolen commons and sweated factory children.''
Slashdot Mirror
Looked around a bit and found FreeCAD, so will have to try that.
William
LaTeX programming should be reduced to three use cases:
- providing additional functionality
- conforming to a particular design / typesetting specification
- shorthand convenience / domain-specific markups created by the authors
The first should be files coming from CTAN and well documented and maintained by the developer, the second should be done by a typesetter _after_ the text is done so as to prepare a document for final format publication, the latter should be maintained by the authors, and the meaning of each macro obvious enough that minimal documentation and maintenance should be needed.
The second instance should be coded so that it's input by a single file, and may be harmlessly commented out (worst case is one has an initial version of the file which does nothing but defines all \newcommands needed as \relax, then in the real version, input after that, only \renewcommand is used), reverting the document to typical LaTeX / Computer Modern formatting so that it can be returned to the author.
William
The AutoCAD angle is interesting --- since I've just gotten a Shapeoko CNC mill up and running, I'll have to look into it --- are there any opensource CAD programs which would work thus?
Emacs won't work for me, I prefer a stylus over a keyboard, and what I really want is the ability to draw w/ the stylus and tweak the dimensions using numbers at need.
financially, morally, &c. for the care of _everyone_ who has the gene. Not just health care, feeding, housing, clothing, educating --- _everything_.
If they're not willing to step up to the plate and be financially responsible for their property, it's abandoned and no longer theirs.
William
If you can upload that style file (tcilatex.sty? it's been a while since I had a Scientific Workplace job) into the system, then yes, you'll be able to work in your comfortable GUI, upload your mangled files filled w/ ugly little hacks and others will be able to edit them. So long as none of your collaborators are offended enough by the ugly little bits which SWP adds to the source to take them out, you'll be able to d/l their changes and continue to work in SWP.
Really though, you should dump all your files to plain LaTeX, import them into LyX and try that. It's a much better program.
I work in publishing, so use it quite a bit for any .pdf manipulation which isn't suited to pdftk, and which justifies it (as opposed to using Enfocus PitStop). Examples:
- in-house ad design system for HS ads in phone books .pdfs displayed in Adobe Acrobat w/ a single click people never used it)
- batch processing ads to add a yellow or white background, or to scale them, sometimes asymmetrically
- batch print graphics w/ filenames --- one instance of that was a several thousand page government publication
- print processed graphics side-by-side w/ the original to make proofreading easier (while I worked up an AppleScript which would page forward in both
- unreleased system for creating galley versions of magazine / journal articles when the source text was in Typo3
- custom typesetting system for custom story books, since taken off-line
I also use it for my own design and typesetting:
- the freely distributed .pdf version of Mike Brotherton's Star Dragon: http://www.mikebrotherton.com/2005/04/20/new-star-dragon-pdf/ (this design made it into the Memoir documentclass along w/ some other things I contributed)
- some entries in the TeX Showcase: http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/onetype.pdf and http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/peace_on_earth.pdf
- books which I typeset and print so as to bind them by hand: http://mysite.verizon.net/william_franklin_adams/portfolio/typography/thebookoftea.pdf
William
Agreed.
LyX is the most innovative opensource tool I've found yet, and one of the most effective --- the book manuscripts which I get which are submitted by LyX users are the cleanest, and most straight-forward, making for the most profitable typesetting jobs.
I really wish that there were a similar vector graphics tool --- I want something which is parametric and shows both drawn vector and under-lying code and which allows one to edit either representation.
The thing that kills me is that for a long while, the Fujitsu tablets had specific cradles for holding hard drives so that they could be swapped out w/ a single screw --- but that feature went away w/ the ST-4100 or thereabouts.
I really miss it, and would be glad of the option of doing that on a newer device.
William
Yeah, I had occasion to use machines w/ fairly similar hardware specs (internal-clock multiplied 25MHz bus CPUs) running Windows 95, Mac OS 7 and NeXTstep 3.1 --- only the NeXT Cube would be considered usable by today's standards (and if it were still running, I'd still be using WriteNow to draft written correspondence and poste.app to print envelopes).
I really wish Apple had preserved more of NeXTstep in Mac OS X, or that there were easily accessible options to strip down the features to a parity w/ OPENSTEP 4.2 --- the performance of which on 200MHz+ machines was unbelievable.
William
Why not directly create the mold w/ a CNC mill like a Shapeoko?
http://www.shapeoko.com/
Opensource, inexpensive buy-in (a bit more than $300 to start), lots of documented upgrades (working on a driveshaft, double Makerslide X-axis and 1 meter Y-axis for mine).
All you need is a dust collector to keep things clean.
Look at how Biosphere 2 worked out, or how often the ISS gets supplies and materiel from earth.
for so long as:
- one doesn't get tired of hydroponically grown food and one can keep the water and air cycle going
- one can prevent anyone from coming up the gravity well and launching a nuke
- and no one stands up and refuses to cross the line in the sand
Heinlein touched on all of these in _Space Cadet_, _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_ and _Starship Troopers_ --- there was a very good line about how trying to keep the peace w/ nukes was like trying to keep discipline in a kindergarden class w/ nothing but a loaded shotgun.
Infallibility is only when speaking _ex cathedra_, ``that is, when in the discharge of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, and by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority.''
If one has stepped down from the office, it no longer applies.
Choosing Phillips over Robertson screws was done for two reasons:
- cost --- Robertson wanted more money for licensing
- mechanics --- a Phillips driver will ``cam out'' when it hits bottom, making triggering the retraction of the tool easy, a Robertson requires a more sophisticated system to measure the torque, stop applying force, then pull out
As has been discussed here in the past, the video feeds are uncompressed.
How much would it cost to build a system w/ a radio system which would constantly monitor the radio frequencies used to transmit drone video feeds, display any which are found on a monitor, sound an audio alarm and begin streaming said video feeds off-site?
How would the public react to every such drone strike / usage being recorded and made available on-line?
Passive stylus?
I had my fill of those w/ the Stylistic C-500, and Point PT-510.
Active digitizer is a requirement for my purposes.
These aren't servers --- they're low-power, mobile machines --- ``run ancient old Windows programs'', not ``load ancient old Windows programs and watch the wait hourglass come up more often than it did on a 486SX/25'' --- if the software can't be run quickly enough to make using it worthwhile, it's not worth it.
I don't want chunky and heavy --- I see no reason to haul around a keyboard and optical drive I almost never use (I have docking stations for when I want to use it at a desk at work or home) and it wouldn't fit in my favourite laptop bag which I've been using for about 2 decades now, and don't want to replace.
Because full Windows isn't meaningful if one can't run ancient old Windows programs --- this worked out so well for the Compaq TC1000.
But what are they going to fill it w/?
Congress is still going forward w/ plans to close the Federal Helium Reserve:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443545504577567102314948314.html
http://www.aapg.org/explorer/2012/12dec/helium1212.cfm
and has intentionally been pricing helium low, so as to allow it to be used in party balloons instead of MRI units, &c.
Because I'm currently using a Fujitsu Stylistic ST-4121 running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and need to keep my Wacom stylus --- I use it for:
- annotating .pdfs
- drawing and sketching using ArtRage, Autodesk SketchBook, FutureWave SmartSketch, Creaturehouse Expression and Macromedia FreeHand
- designing fonts using FontForge
- lightweight programming using Runtime Revolution (I find drawing interface elements easier w/ the stylus)
- writing papers using LyX and WinTeXshell which are then typeset using LaTeX (I prefer to write rather than type)
- notetaking w/ handwriting recognition using Evernote
If the Surface Pro had longer battery life or a replaceable battery, I'd get one. If it's possible to run Mac OS X on it, I'd be tempted, until then, I guess I'm back to pricing a larger SSD for my current machine.
We understand the interactions of gravity --- we don't understand it well enough to control it:
- no artificial gravity for space voyages --- freefall or centrifuge
- no ability to locally disable or lower it --- have to fake it in a tank or ride the vomit comet
Look at Buck Rogers for some ideas on what gravity technology might result in.
all the gory details here:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?story=MacBasic.txt
A later development was Borland's ObjectVision --- there was even provision for loading ObjectVision files into other more sophisticated Borland environments if memory serves.
NeXTstep of course had Interface Builder and Project Builder around that time as well.
William
Yeah, cyberpunk novels like Walter Jon Williams' _Hardwired_ seem more and more likely.
Actually, the commons was a well-established principle and was pretty standard across much of the world. Certainly it figured large in America's Anglo-Saxon history.
Passages from H.G. Wells' _Outline of History_ (which was pretty much the research notes for his science fiction novels)
``This was the moral atmosphere of the time, and those Lords and gentlemen who grabbed the people's commons assumed possession of the mines under their lands and crushed down the Yeoman farmers and peasants to the status of pauper laborers, had no idea that they were living anything but highly meritorious lives.''
``Came the vague humanitarianism and dreamy vanity of the Tsar Alexander, came teh shaken Hapsburgs of Austria, the resentful Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the aristocratic traditions of Britain, still badly frightened by the revolution and its conscience all awry with stolen commons and sweated factory children.''