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Archive for 26 January 2009

LaTeX-Award on Matheplanet.com

26 January 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz

The big german math portal Matheplanet.com has presented its 7th annual awards yesterday evening, Jan 25th. Those awards honor the efforts of community members who are providing help, knowledge, work and time to all of the Matheplanet users. More than 4000 votes were given in different categories like mathematics, physics, computer science, moderation, information, article writing, book reviewing and more. Because that math site has a lively LaTeX forum there’s also an award for honoring the best LaTeX advisor. This year (and the last year too) the voters have chosen me, and I’m very proud of it, because I’m part of the Matheplanet community for many years and I appreciate this site and its members. At this place I want to say thank you for your feedback.
If you’re having LaTeX questions, especially if they are concerning mathematics, you’re invited to visit the Matheplanet LaTeX forum to post questions and also to help other users. If you’re interested in LaTeX or just look for advice you may also visit our LaTeX User Group.

Category: News, Events, LaTeX General, Mathematics | 3 Comments »

Write and Win

22 January 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz

If you want to share your LaTeX knowledge you could write an article for the Know How Articles Section of the LaTeX
Community Forum
. The author who has written the best rated article until the end of March will receive an iPod Nano with 8 GB or €100 cash instead.

If you are interested and want to read more, to get ideas or to know how it’s working, visit the Announcement on LaTeX
-Community.org
.

Category: News, Online Ressources, LaTeX General | No Comments »

Math formulas and arrows with TikZ

19 January 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz

In the Art of Problem Solving Forum somebody asked for help in creating a construction for proofs and demonstrations in Logic by LaTeX commands. Math expressions should be aligned, some connected by arrows going vertically and horizontally.
Regarding arrows I would use tikz and also its matrix library for math nodes. The nodes could be connected by -| or |- path construction operations, like

\draw (node1) -| (node2) |- (node3);

For creation of the example given in the thread on AoPS I’ve used a matrix of math nodes, some empty nodes for alignment and |- -| arrows, here’s the compilable example code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={anchor=west}]
  \matrix (m) [matrix of math nodes,
    nodes in empty cells]{
    \quad & 1.\quad (x)(Q\supset Fx) & \\
    & 2.\quad Q\supset Fx & \textrm{I,\textbf{UI}} & \\
    & 3.\quad Q \\
    & 4.\quad Fx & 2, 3, \textrm{ M.P.}\\
    & 5.\quad (x)Fx & 4, \textrm{ \textbf{UG}} \\
    & 6.\quad Q\supset(x)Fx & 3-5, \textrm{ C.P.} \\
    & 7.\quad \parbox[t]{2.9cm}{%
             $(x)(Q\supset(x)Fx)\supset$\\
             $[Q\supset(x)Fx]$} & 1-6, \textrm{ C.P.}\\};
  \draw[-stealth] (m-7-2.north east)
               -| (m-1-1.west) |- (m-1-2);
  \draw[-stealth] (m-6-2.north east)
               -| (m-3-1.east) |- (m-3-2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output:

logic diagram with TikZ

Category: pgf/TikZ, Mathematics | No Comments »

LaTeX Community launched new features and new design

14 January 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz

LaTeX Community Logo

Exactly 2 years after LaTeX-Community.org has gone online its forum has got a new fresh look and the community site is providing new features for its members and users.

In a short summary:

  • Know How section, intended to contain categorized articles related to LaTeX,
  • News section, providing breaking news about LaTeX on web pages and RSS feed,
  • Comment feature for adding comments and discussion of articles and news,
  • Rating feature for articles.

See the original announcement for more information.

My thanks to Sven Wiegand for developing and maintening this great site. Have a look!

Category: News, Online Ressources | 1 Comment »

TikZ: Commutative diagrams with crossing edges

7 January 2009 by Stefan Kottwitz

When one edge of a graph passes over or under another edge there may be a small gap needed in the drawing of one of those edges. An easy trick is to draw the upper edge two times: first with the background color and more thickness, afterwards normally, like
<node1> edge [-,line width=6pt,draw=white] <node2> edge <node2>
Here’s an example diagram used in the definition of the pull-back of a Banach bundle:

Tikz commutative diagram

The source code:

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \matrix (m) [matrix of math nodes, row sep=3em,
    column sep=3em]{
    & f^\ast E_V& & \vphantom{f^\ast}E_V \\
    f^\ast E & & \vphantom{f^\ast}E & \\
    & U & & V \\
    M & & N & \\};
  \path[-stealth]
    (m-1-2) edge (m-1-4) edge (m-2-1)
            edge [densely dotted] (m-3-2)
    (m-1-4) edge (m-3-4) edge (m-2-3)
    (m-2-1) edge [-,line width=6pt,draw=white] (m-2-3)
            edge (m-2-3) edge (m-4-1)
    (m-3-2) edge [densely dotted] (m-3-4)
            edge [densely dotted] (m-4-1)
    (m-4-1) edge (m-4-3)
    (m-3-4) edge (m-4-3)
    (m-2-3) edge [-,line width=6pt,draw=white] (m-4-3)
            edge (m-4-3);
\end{tikzpicture}

This topic was discussed on Matheplanet.com.

If you want to read more about commutative diagrams with TikZ have a look here: Chains with labeled edges.

Category: pgf/TikZ, Mathematics | 3 Comments »