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-%% BEGIN psd-help.tex
-
-\appendix\part*{Help}
-
-\Section{Boxes\label{S-boxes}}
-
-Many of the PSTricks macros have an argument for text that is processed in
-restricted horizontal mode (in \LaTeX{} parlance, LR-mode) and then transformed
-in some way. This is always the macro's last argument, and it is written
-"{<stuff>}" in this \emph{User's Guide}. Examples are the framing, rotating,
-scaling, positioning and node macros. I will call these ``LR-box'' macros, and
-use framing as the leading example in the discussion below.
-
-In restricted horizontal mode, the input, consisting of regular characters and
-boxes, is made into one (long or short) line. There is no line-breaking, nor
-can there be vertical mode material such as an entire displayed equation.
-However, the fact that you can include another box means that this isn't
-really a restriction.
-
-For one thing, alignment environments such as "\halign" or \LaTeX's "tabular"
-are just boxes, and thus present no problem. Picture environments and the box
-macros themselves are also just boxes. Actually, there isn't a single PSTricks
-command that cannot be put directly in the argument of an LR-box macro.
-However, entire paragraphs or other vertical mode material such as displayed
-equations need to be nested in a "\vbox" or \LaTeX{} "\parbox" or "minipage".
-\LaTeX{} users should see "fancybox.sty" and its documentation, "fancybox.doc",
-for extensive tips and trick for using LR-box commands.
-
-The PSTricks LR-box macros have some features that are not found in most other
-LR-box macros, such as the standard \LaTeX{} LR-box commands.
-
-With \LaTeX{} LR-box commands, the contents is always processed in text mode,
-even when the box occurs in math mode. PSTricks, on the other hand, preserves
-math mode, and attempts to preserve the math style as well. \TeX{} has four
-math styles: text, display, script and scriptscript. Generally, if the box
-macro occurs in displayed math (but not in sub- or superscript math), the
-contents are processed in display style, and otherwise the contents are
-processed in text style (even here the PSTricks macros can make mistakes, but
-through no fault of their own). If you don't get the right style, explicitly
-include a "\textstyle", "\displaystyle", "\scriptstyle" or
-"\scriptscriptstyle" command at the beginning of the box macro's argument.
-
- In case you want your PSTricks LR-box commands to treat math in the same as
-your other LR-box commands, you can switch this feature on and off with the
-commands
-\begin{Ex}
- \object \psmathboxtrue
- \object \psmathboxfalse
-\end{Ex}
-
-You can have commands (such as, but not restricted to, the math style
-commands) automatically inserted at the beginning of each LR-box using the
- \Mac \everypsbox{commands}
-command.\footnote{This is a token register.}
-
-If you would like to define an LR-box environment <name> from an LR-box
-command <cmd>, use
- \Mac \pslongbox{name}{cmd}
-For example, after
-\begin{LVerbatim}
- \pslongbox{MyFrame}{\psframebox}
-\end{LVerbatim}
-you can write
-\begin{LVerbatim}
- \MyFrame <stuff>\endMyFrame
-\end{LVerbatim}
-instead of
-\begin{LVerbatim}
- \psframebox{<stuff>}
-\end{LVerbatim}
-Also, \LaTeX{} users can write
-\begin{LVerbatim}
- \begin{MyFrame} <stuff>\end{MyFrame}
-\end{LVerbatim}
-It is up to you to be sure that <cmd> is a PSTricks LR-box command; if it
-isn't, nasty errors can arise.
-
-Environments like have nice properties:
-\begin{itemize}
- \item The syntax is clearer when <stuff> is long.
- \item It is easier to build composite LR-box commands. For example, here is
-a framed minipage environment for \LaTeX:
-\begin{LVerb}
- \pslongbox{MyFrame}{\psframebox}
- \newenvironment{fminipage}%
- {\MyFrame\begin{minipage}}%
- {\end{minipage}\endMyFrame}
-\end{LVerb}
- \item You include verbatim text and other "\catcode" tricks in <stuff>.
-\end{itemize}
-
-The rest of this section elaborates on the inclusion of verbatim text in
-LR-box environments and commands, for those who are interested. "fancybox.sty"
-also contains some nice verbatim macros and tricks, some of which are useful
-for LR-box commands.
-
-The reason that you cannot normally include verbatim text in an LR-box
-commands argument is that \TeX{} reads the whole argument before processing the
-"\catcode" changes, at which point it is too late to change the category
-codes. If this is all Greek to you,\footnote{%
-Incidentally, many foreign language macros, such as "greek.tex", use
-"\catcode" tricks which can cause problems in LR-box macros.} then just try
-this \LaTeX{} example to see the problem:
-\begin{LVerbatim}
- \psframebox{\verb+\foo{bar}+}
-\end{LVerbatim}
-
-The LR-box environments defined with \n\pslongbox{} do not have this problem
-because <stuff> is not processed as an argument. Thus, this works:
-\begin{example}
- \pslongbox{MyFrame}{\psframebox}
- \MyFrame \verb+\foo{bar}+\endMyFrame
-\end{example}
-
-The commands
-\begin{Ex}
- \object \psverbboxtrue
- \object \psverbboxfalse
-\end{Ex}
-switch into and out of, respectively, a special PSTricks mode that lets you
-include verbatim text in any LR-box command. For example:
-\begin{example}
- \psverbboxtrue
- \psframebox{\verb+\foo{bar}+}
-\end{example}
-However, this is not as robust. You must explicitly group color commands in
-<stuff>, and LR-box commands that usually ignore spaces that follow
-"{<stuff>}" might not do so when \n\psverbboxtrue{} is in effect.
-
-
-\Section{Tips and More Tricks\label{tips}}
-
-\faq{How do I rotate/frame this or that with \LaTeX?}
-
-See "fancybox.sty" and its documentation.
-
-\faq{How can I suppress the PostScript so that I can use my document with a
-non-PostScript dvi driver?}
-
-Put the command
- \Mac \PSTricksOff
-at the beginning of your document. You should then be able to print or preview
-drafts of your document (minus the PostScript, and perhaps pretty strange
-looking) with any dvi driver.
-
-
-\faq{How can I improve the rendering of halftones?}
-
-This can be an important consideration when you have a halftone in the
-background and text on top. You can try putting
-\begin{LVerb}
- \pstverb{106 45 {dup mul exch dup mul add 1.0 exch sub} setscreen}
-\end{LVerb}
-before the halftone, or in a header (as in headers and footers, not as in
-PostScript header files), if you want it to have an effect on every page.
-
-"setscreen" is a device-dependent operator.
-
-\faq{What special characters can be active with PSTricks?}
-
-\Section{Including PostScript code\label{S-raw}}
-
-To learn about the PostScript language, consult Adobe's \emph{PostScript
-Language Tutorial and Cookbook} (the ``Blue Book''), or Henry McGilton and
-Mary Campione's \emph{PostScript by Example} (1992). Both are published by
-Addison-Wesley. You may find that the Appendix of the Blue Book, plus an
-understanding of how the stack works, is all you need to write simple code for
-computing numbers (e.g., to specify coordinates or plots using PostScript).
-
-You may want to define \TeX{} macros for including PostScript fragments in
-various places. All \TeX{} macros are expanded before being passed on to
-PostScript. It is not always clear what this means. For example, suppose you
-write
-\begin{LVerb}
- \SpecialCoor
- \def\mydata{23 43}
- \psline(!47 \mydata add)
- \psline(!47 \mydata\ add)
- \psline(!47 \mydata~add)
- \psline(!47 \mydata{} add)
-\end{LVerb}
-You will get a PostScript error in each of the \n\psline{} commands. To see
-what the argument is expanding to, try use \TeX's "\edef" and "\show". E.g.,
-\begin{LVerb}
- \def\mydata{23 43}
- \edef\temp{47 \mydata add}
- \show\temp
- \edef\temp{47 \mydata\ add}
- \show\temp
- \edef\temp{47 \mydata~add}
- \show\temp
- \edef\temp{47 \mydata{} add}
- \show\temp
-\end{LVerb}
-\TeX{} expands the code, assigns its value to "\temp", and then displays the
-value of "\temp" on your console. Hit <return> to procede. You fill find that
-the four samples expand, respectively, to:
-\begin{LVerb}
- 47 23 43add
- 47 23 43\ add
- 47 23 43\penalty \@M \ add
- 47 23 43{} add
-\end{LVerb}
-All you really wanted was a space between the "43" and "add". The command
-"\space" will do the trick:
-\begin{LVerb}
- \psline(!47 \mydata\space add)
-\end{LVerb}
-
-You can include balance braces "{"~"}"; these will be passed on verbatim to
-PostScript. However, to include an unbalanced left or right brace, you have to
-use, respectively,
-\begin{Ex}
- \object \pslbrace
- \object \psrbrace
-\end{Ex}
-Don't bother trying "\}" or "\{".
-
-Whenever you insert PostScript code in a PSTricks argument, the dictionary on
-the top of the dictionary stack is "tx@Dict", which is PSTrick's main
-dictionary. If you want to define you own variables, you have two options:
-\begin{description}
- \item[Simplest] Always include a "@" in the variable names, because PSTricks
-never uses "@" in its variables names. You are at a risk of overflowing the
-"tx@Dict" dictionary, depending on your PostScript interpreter. You are also
-more likely to collide with someone else's definitions, if there are multiple
-authors contributing to the document.
- \item[Safest] Create a dictionary named "TDict" for your scratch
-computations. Be sure to remove it from the dictionary stack at the end of any
-code you insert in an argument. E.g.,
-\begin{LVerb}
- TDict 10 dict def TDict begin <your code> end
-\end{LVerb}
-\end{description}
-
-\section{Troubleshooting\label{troubleshooting}}
-\setcounter{faq}{0}
-
-\faq{Why does the document bomb in the printer when the first item in a
-\LaTeX{} file is a float?}
-
-When the first item in a \LaTeX{} file is a float, "\special"'s in the preamble
-are discarded. In particular, the "\special" for including PSTricks's header
-file is lost. The workaround is to but something before the float, or to
-include the header file by a command-line option with your dvi-to-ps driver.
-
-\faq{I converted a \texttt{.dvi} file to PostScript, and then mailed it to a
-colleague. It prints fine for me but bombs on her printer.}
-
-Here is the most likely (but not the only) cause of this problem. The
-PostScript files you get when using PSTricks can contain long lines. This
-should be acceptable to any proper PostScript interpreter, but the lines can
-get chopped when mailing the file. There is no way to fix this in PSTricks,
-but you can make a point of wrapping the lines of your PostScript files when
-mailing them. E.g., on UNIX you can use "uuencode" and "uudecode", or you can
-use the following AWK script to wrap the lines:
-\begin{LVerb}
- #! /bin/sh
- # This script wraps all lines
- # Usage (if script is named wrap):
- # wrap < infile > outfile
- awk '
- BEGIN {
- N = 78 # Max line length
- }
- { if (length($0)<=N)
- print
- else {
- currlength = 0
- for (i = 1; i <=NF; i++) {
- if ((currlength = currlength + length($i) + 1) > N) {
- printf "\n"
- printf "%s", $i
- currlength = length($i)
- }
- else
- printf \ %s", $i
- }
- printf "\n"
- }
- } '
-\end{LVerb}
-
-\faq{The color commands cause extraneous vertical space to be inserted.}
-
-For example, this can happen if you start a \LaTeX{} "\parbox" or a "p{}"
-column with a color command. The solution usually is to precede the color
-command with "\leavevmode".
-
-
-\faq{The color commands interfere with other color macros I use.}
-
-Try putting the command \Main\altcolormode{} at the beginning of your document.
-This may or may not help. Be extra careful that the scope of color commands
-does not extend across pages. This is generally a less robust color scheme.
-
-\faq{How do I stop floats from being the same color as surrounding material?}
-
-That's easy: Just put an explicit color command at the beginning of the float,
-e.g., \n\black.
-
-\faq{When I use some color command in box macros or with \texttt{\string\setbox},
-the colors get all screwed up.}
-
-\label{colorboxproblems}%
-If "\mybox" is a box register, and you write
-\begin{LVerb}
- \green Ho Hum.
- \setbox\mybox=\hbox{Foo bar \blue fee fum}
- Hi Ho. \red Diddley-dee
- \box\mybox hum dee do
-\end{LVerb}
-then when "\mybox" is inserted, the current color is red and so "Foo bar"
-comes out red (rather than green, which was the color in effect when the box
-was set). The command that returns from \n\blue{} to the current color "green",
-when the box is set, is executed after the "\hbox" is closed, which means that
-"Hi Ho" is green, but "hum dee do" is still blue.
-
-This odd behavior is due to the fact that \TeX{} does not support color
-internally, the way it supports font commands. The first thing to do is to
-explicitly bracket any color commands inside the box. Second, be sure that the
-current color is black when setting the box. Third, make other explicit color
-changes where necessary if you still have problems. The color scheme invoked
-by \n\altcolormode{} is slightly better behaved if you follow the first two
-rules.
-
-Note that various box macros use "\setbox" and so these anomalies can arise
-unexpectedly.
-
-\endinput
-
-%% END psd-help.tex