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JMU UUG LaTeX Tutorial

Introduction

BEFORE WE START: Get an Overleaf account.

Overview: The TeX typesetting system originated with Don Knuth in 1970s, prompted by his work on "The Art of Computer Programming." It first ran on a PDP-10 in 1978. TeX uses a versioning system w/ increasing digits of π; lastest is 3.14159265. It was extended to LaTeX by Leslie Lamport (@ SRI International) in 1980s, and is now a full document preparation system. The latest version is LaTeX 2e. LaTeX is widely used in CS, Math, Engineering, and other scientific fields.

Introduce concepts:

  • Compiled typesetting (composing documents like C/Java programs)
  • Document description language (markup, like HTML)
  • Philosophy of separate content and form/presentation (like CSS)

Note: LaTeX is pronounced "lah-tech" or "lay-tech", NOT "lay-techs"!

Document organization

  • First thing: \documentclass{article|IEEEtran|proc|report|book|beamer}
    • For smaller margins: \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
    • For UTF-8 support: \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  • Document info: \title, \author, \date, \maketitle
  • Page numbers: \pagenumbering{roman}, \thispagestyle{empty|plain}, \pagestyle{empty|plain}
  • Organization: \section, \subsection, \subsubsection
    • Others: \tableofcontents, \label, ~\ref
    • Use asterisk to toggle numbering
  • Comments w/ %

Formatting

  • Lists: \begin{enumerate|itemize}, \item
  • Common font/color formatting
    • \textbf, \textit, \texttt, \underline, quotes, --, ---
    • Shorter forms: {\bf }, {\it }, {\tt }
    • \usepackage{xcolor}, \textcolor{color}{text}
    • \begin{tiny|small|large|huge}
    • \begin{verbatim}, \verb!
    • International formatting: UTF-8 or \’, \”, \~, etc.
  • Footnotes: \footnote
  • Images: \includegraphics{file.png}
    • Requires \usepackage{graphicx}
    • Options: [scale=0.5], [width=1in], \begin{center}
  • Floating figures: \figure
    • Options: \caption, \label (needs to go at the end), ~\ref
    • Works for verbatims or graphics, too
  • Tables: \tabular, \hline, [l|c|r], \multicolumn{n}{cols}{text}

Mathematics

  • Math mode: \begin{equation}, $, $$
  • Sub/superscript, common operators (\cdot, \leq, \approx, \times, \pm)
  • Greek letters (e.g., \omega, \Omega)
  • Common functions: \log, \sin, \cos, \tan, \min, \max
  • More complex operators: \frac{}{}, \sqrt[]{}, \sum, \prod, \int
  • Delimiters: \left([{<, \lfloor, \lceil
  • Logic symbols: \in, \subset, \forall, \exists, \rightarrow
  • Spacing: \; \: \, \!
  • Fun: \flat, \sharp, \clubsuit, \heartsuit, \pitchfork

Bibliography

  • Special BibTeX file format (.bib)
  • Download references from ACM Digital Library and/or IEEE Xplore
  • Integrates with Zotero
  • \bibliographystyle{plain}, \bibliography{fname}
  • ~\cite{key}

Large documents

  • Custom .sty files and Overleaf templates
  • Multiple files: \include
  • Importance of unique labels & bibliography management
  • Build frameworks (e.g., Makefiles) -- need to rebuild multiple times!
  • Latexmk and preview apps

Macros

  • Declaration: \def\name{texthere}
  • Examples:
    • \def\topK{\textsf{\textbf{topK}}}
    • \def\red#1{\textcolor{red}{#1}}

Fun fact: LaTeX is Turing-complete!

Useful Extensions

  • AMS (American Mathematical Society) packages (docs)
    • \usepackage{amsmath, amssym}
    • \begin{align*}, \noindent
    • Theorems, lemmas, etc. (Overleaf guide)
  • Code listings (docs)
    • \usepackage{listings}
    • \lstset{language=C|C++|Java|Python|LaTeX} (or leave out for pseudocode)
    • \begin{lstlisting}
  • Algorithm packages
    • Overleaf guide
    • Wikibooks guide
    • \usepackage{algorithmicx,algpseudocode}
    • \begin{algorithmic}
    • \State w/ math mode (\gets for assignment)
    • \If{cond}, \Else, \ElsIf, \EndIf
    • \For{cond}, \ForAll{cond}, \EndFor
    • \While{cond}, \EndWhile
    • \Function{name}{params}, \EndFunction, \Return, \Call
  • Semantics/proof rules (docs)
    • \usepackage{semantic}
    • \inference[name]{premise(s)}{conclusion}
    • ->, =>, |-
    • Recursive nesting for proof trees
  • Beamer (docs)
    • \documentclass{beamer}
    • \begin{frame}
    • \frametitle
    • Sections (same as usual, now with visual indicators)
  • TikZ (docs)
    • Overleaf guide
    • \begin{tikzpicture}
    • (x1,y1) -- (x2,y2)
    • \draw, \draw[->], \filldraw
    • \node

Common headaches

  • Careful with underscores and other symbols
    • E.g.: $ and # must be escaped
  • Spacing: \hspace, \vspace, \newpage
    • Units: in, cm, pt
  • Table positioning: [t|h|b|p]
  • Finding typos and syntax errors

Local installation

References

Diversions