README for alb-latex

Precis:	LaTeX packages for technical writing in computer science
Authors:	Andrew Lincoln Burrow
Copyright:	2000-2010, 2012-2013, 2017 Andrew Lincoln Burrow
Version:	0.9.2

Overview

alb-latex is software to support technical writing in mathematics and computer science. It comprises LaTeX, Emacs lisp, and Makefile source code. The LaTeX component is a small collection of classes and styles files to format theorems, proofs, and algorithms, and to layout floating elements and documents. The three document classes address documenting LaTeX, keeping notes on research reading, and producing book length monographs. The Emacs lisp component extends AUCTeX and RefTeX to support the editing of these document elements and types. The Makefile component provides dependency driven building of these documents the case of a large complex monograph, and for the case of a series of documents. The software is accompanied by documentation in the form of a small reference manual for each LaTeX class and style file that includes notes on related features of the Emacs lisp and Makefile components.

Status

The software has been in use for many years, but there are some eccentricities in the documentation and installation that arise from its development for personal use. I hope to correct these over time. I expect to use the issue tracker.

Installation

To install alb-latex simply place the contents of the repository in a convenient location. The source code is installed once LaTeX can find the class and style files, Emacs can locate the emacs lisp files, and AUXTeX can locate the style files. These cases are covered in the subsection on minimal installation. Further configuration is suggested in the subsection on additional configuration.

Minimal installation

To install alb-latex simply place the contents of the repository in a convenient location. The source code is installed once LaTeX can find the class and style files, Emacs can locate the emacs lisp files, and AUXTeX can locate the style files. The repository contains helper scripts to achieve these ends.

alb-latex-profile.sh

This bourne shell script can be sourced from your login script. It updates the environment variables TEXINPUTS and INDEXSTYLE so that LaTeX can locate the class and style files.

One approach is to place the repository under the directory ~/Config and add the following fragment to a login script such as ~/.bash_profile

# Set LaTeX and MakeIndex to search the working directory and the
# standard directories
export TEXINPUTS=".:"
export INDEXSTYLE=".:"

# Run the personal profile scripts.  These enact various systems
# pulled in as repositories under the "${HOME}/Config" directory
for i in ${HOME}/Config/*/*-profile.sh ; do
    if [ -r $i ]; then
        source $i
    fi
done
unset i

Change the filename ${HOME}/Config to suit your personal directory structure.

alb-latex-start.el

This emacs lisp code can be sourced from your personal emacs init file. It updates the load path, and AUCTeX style path.

Again, one approach is to place the repository under the directory ~/Config and add the following fragment to ~/.emacs

;;
;;
;; SCRIPTED CONFIGURATION
;; ---------------------------------------------------------------
;;

(mapcar 'load
        (file-expand-wildcards "~/Config/*/*-start.el" t))

Change the filename ${HOME}/Config to suit your personal directory structure.

Additional configuration

The above installation steps are the least obtrusive to make the software available within LaTeX and Emacs. However, there are steps you may wish to take to enjoy additional features. Some of these are noted below as code snippets to add to ~/.emacs or set using the customize tools in emacs.

• Automate construction for section, figure, table, and equation labels:

  (setq-default reftex-insert-label-flags
                '("sfte" "ft"))
  

• Include the file basename in the section, figure, table, and equation labels:

  (setq-default reftex-label-alist
                '((nil ?s "%S%f:")
                  (nil ?f "fig:%f:")
                  (nil ?t "tab:%f:")
                  (nil ?e "eq:%f:")))
  

LaTeX packages

The collection of LaTeX style files and classes comprise a small set of document layouts for technical writing. These are supplemented by macros for formatting mathematics and computer algorithms.

alb-latex.cls

Document class for alb-latex package documentation

See alb-latex.pdf for further information.

alb-journal.cls

Document class for a research journal

See alb-journal.pdf for further information.

alb-thesis.cls

Document class for a thesis

See alb-thesis.pdf for further information.

alb-float-tools.sty

Style file to typeset float material and captions

See alb-float-tools.pdf for further information.

alb-order-theory.sty

Style file to typeset mathematics in order theory

See alb-order-theory.pdf for further information.

alb-graph-theory.sty

Style file to typeset mathematics in graph theory

See alb-graph-theory.pdf for further information.

alb-theorems.sty

Style file to typeset theorems

See alb-theorems.pdf for further information.

alb-algorithms.sty

Style file to typeset algorithms and their floats

See alb-algorithms.pdf for further information.

alb-proofs.sty

Style file to typeset Lamport's structured proofs

See alb-proofs.pdf for further information.

alb-avm.sty

Style file to typeset attribute-value matrix (AVM) notation

See alb-avm.pdf for further information.

Emacs lisp modules

The collection of emacs lisp modules support the LaTeX style files and classes by exending AUCTeX and RefTeX and providing the following additional capabilities.

• Generate file names from sentences
• Manipulate local variables lists
• Associate AUCTeX, and RefTeX with LaTeX source code
• Extend AUCTeX and RefTeX to ease the management of large projects including functions to create skeleton files from descriptive sentences, improve the lookup of filenames, and automate the use of labels.
• Extend AUCTeX to parse LaTeX via a simplified yet extensible parser with few additional restrictions on the form of LaTeX code.

Makefiles for LaTeX

The supplied makefiles automate the application of pdflatex, bibtex, and makeindex to a complex LaTeX document, and to a collection of LaTeX documents. Both makefiles use detailed dependency information gathered by parsing source files. They are parameterised by a single variable specifying the master LaTeX files.

make\monograph\Makefile

A makefile parameterised by the make variable TEX_MASTER to accept a single document. The directory also contains example LaTeX source code to demonstrate the features.

make\serial\Makefile

A makefile parameterised by the make variable TEX_MASTERS to accept a series of documents. The directory also contains example LaTeX source code to demonstrate the features.