Re: [Fhsst-authors] Hsalgebra Figures . . . and Stuff

[Sam Halliday]

Peter Hutnick wrote:
> I created figure 1.12 (in hsalgebra.tex).

thanks!

> I made every effort not to goof the TeX file up.  Used GNU nano (with 
> -w) to edit.  Still builds fine.  Whew!

excellent... its always a good idea to make sure `make` works before
commiting :-)

> I also found an error in that example; the signs for all of the values
> 
> of f(x) in the table were wrong.  It's fixed in the attached version.

cheers... we all make typos; and if we watch each others backs, it makes
life easier for us all.

> I have a few questions/issues on the whole figures situation.  First,
> I am a bit confused about the naming convention.

we all are... there isn't really a convention yet :-/

> I have been using wf for What is a Function ... the name of the
> chapter.  I have been numbering them ex[figure number].  This seems to
> deviate somewhat from the existing figures, but I'm not sure what the
> right way is.

that sounds about right to fit in with whats happening at the moment.
although, we seem to be prefering eg[number] rather than ex[number].
maybe we should decide on a standard. lets say ex[number] like what you
have... i'll update the .tex file when i get the time. that was me did
the eg->ex change, sorry.

> ** Warning: Here comes some advice that makes up for its lack of
> quality with sheer quantity and audaciousness. **
>
> First, a directory filled with files that are /all/ prefixed by the
> same string (hsa) indicates to me that there should be another subdir.
>  Like:
> 
> fhhst
>    |-> maths
>            |-> eps
>                  |-> hsa
>                         |-> functions.hypb.1.gnuplot

yes, that would be nice... but gives us no extra techincal merrit. if
the eps folder gets clusttered, ill see about doing this, but there
isn't really any call for it at the moment.

> ("eps" should be figs IMO, since other dir names indicate content, not
> 
> format . . .)

well... we are standardising ALL figures as .eps files... so they are
the same thing. we should stick with eps as it implies that EPS files
have been made... i know i have local folders named "figs" which are
waiting to have EPS figures created instead. we get a lot of submissions
in different folders.

we'll go with what we have, simply becuase we gain no advantage by
changing... but its something we should look into at a later date.

> Using a more plain description will help avoid renumbering issues.  I 
> presume this is why all the qi qf stuff was used in the first place.

> In the same vein, the .gnuplot files are full of careful formatting 
> commands, which makes the plots look very nice.  OTOH, it makes them 
> fragile.

you mustn't have got the FHSST-Authors posts from last week...
basically, i decided gnuplot sucks for this kind of thing and we are now
going to go with pstricks for generating all the figures. one of the
main deciding factors was it's inability to do shaded regions properly.
and the fact that each plot was taking about 10 minutes to an hour to
write... (since they are all so different). gnuplot only really has an
advantage when you are generating lots of plots which will follow the
same formatting rules.

> Incidentally, the PostScrpt terminal type has an eps option.  I think 
> this will save a step.  And why aren't the EPS files generated by the 
> make system?

the gnuplot eps terminal sucks, so i was making normal ps files, and
running them thorugh ps2eps... most people didn't have this installed,
so we decided not to include it in the make. also, i was using beta
gnuplot; and that could break things. and, simply put: there was no need
to regenerate EPS files.

> I would be willing to make any of these changes that are agreeable to 
> the group.  (Assuming I can track down that key . . .)

well... lets kinda go with whats there at the moment, but decide upon a
naming scheme.

since the infrastructure is already there for eps/file.eps mayeb we
should work with that.

i think the reason that the naming is so inconsisntent is that the
chapters have not been given names. we should maybe have been stricter
when we were laying out the book's formatting... requiring every
chapter/subchapter/formula/figure to have a \label attached to it. so,
for example, your "what is a function" subsection, would have the label

  \label{hsa:wf}

and all the equations would be something like

  \label{eq:hsa:wf:desc}

and the figures

  \label{fig:hsa:wf:desc}

so, basically... the eps file would be easy to name, as it would just be

  eps/hsa-wf-desc.eps

for that case.

i can't see any problems with that... if you can, please let me know and
we can rethink it.

> I am acutely aware that I am the new kid, and I didn't show up just to
> 
> start telling the old hands what's what.  OTOH (how many hands is that
> 
> so far?), I can't go ahead with practices that I think are going to 
> cause problems down the road in good conscience without saying
> something.

the problem is that we have NO policies, really. when we get the book to
a readable form, we can have a big hacking session to get the internal
LaTeX consistent, and do some "prettifications" which give no technical
ad. but at this stage, we don't want to impose such silly nitpicking
rules on contributors, for fear of scaring them off!

> I also have some questions about GNUPlot.

it is gnuplot... not GNUplot. it never was, no never will be a GNU (or
GPL compliant, for that matter) program. it has existed since before the
GNU project, and the naming is coincidental. :-)

and i hate it, now.

>  I can do my own research on 
> this stuff, but if someone here is an expert it would save me a bunch
> of groveling through docs and begging on mailing lists that I don't
> happen to already be subscribed to

best advise i could give you... delete all your .gnuplot files and use
pstricks for FHSST, thats what i did :-D

mark has a good link to a PDF file showing how to really show off with
pstricks, and you can make plots in a matter of minutes instead of
hours. and we will all be consistent :-)

cheers,
Sam
-- 
Free High School Science Texts
  http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fhsst
Sam's Homepages
  http://fommil.homeunix.org/~samuel
  http://www.ma.hw.ac.uk/~samuel