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% $Id: faq-support.tex,v 1.2 2009/07/11 12:28:34 rf10 Exp $
\section{Support Packages for \TeX{}}
\Question[Q-xfigetc]{\AllTeX{}-friendly drawing packages}
\AliasQuestion{Q-xfig}
\AliasQuestion{Q-figetc}
\ProgName{(X)Fig} is a menu driven tool that allows you to
draw objects on the screen of an \acro{X} workstation; \ProgName{transfig}
is a set of tools which translate the code \ProgName{fig}. The list
of export formats is very long, and includes \MF{} and \MP{},
Encapsulated \PS{} and \acro{PDF}, as well as combinations that wrap
a graphics format in a \LaTeX{} import file, which may include
\LaTeX{} commands to place text (compiled by \LaTeX{} itself) as
labels, etc., in the figures.
There's no explicit port of \ProgName{xfig} to windows (although it is
said to work under \ProgName{cygwin} with their X-windows system~---
\href{http://www.cs.usask.ca/~wew036/latex/xfig.html}{installation advice}
is available).
However, the program % ! line break
\href{http://tech-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/applets/javafig/}{\ProgName{jfig}}
is thought by many to be an acceptable substitute, written in Java.
\ProgName{Asymptote} is a widely-praised development of the \MP{}
language, which can draw 2D or 3D diagrams, and can also label
diagrams with \LaTeX{} text; copious documentation is available via
\href{http://asymptote.sourceforge.net}{\ProgName{asymptote}'s web site}.
\begin{ctanrefs}
\item[asymptote]\CTANref{asymptote}
\item[xfig]\CTANref{xfig}
\item[transfig]\CTANref{transfig}
\end{ctanrefs}
\Question[Q-texcad]{\TeX{}\acro{CAD}, a drawing package for \LaTeX{}}
\TeX{}\acro{CAD} is a program for the \acro{PC} which enables the user to draw diagrams
on screen using a mouse or arrow keys, with an on-screen menu of available
picture-elements. Its output is code for the \LaTeX{}
\environment{picture} environment.
Optionally, it can be set to include lines at all angles using
the em\TeX{} driver-family
\htmlignore
\csx{special}s (\Qref{}{Q-specials}).
\endhtmlignore
\begin{htmlversion}
\Qref{\csx{special}s}{Q-specials}.
\end{htmlversion}
\TeX{}\acro{CAD} is part of the em\TeX{} distribution.
A Unix port of the program (\ProgName{xtexcad}) has been made.
\begin{ctanrefs}
\item[emtex]\CTANref{emtex}
\item[xtexcad]\CTANref{xtexcad}
\end{ctanrefs}
\Question[Q-spell]{Spelling checkers for work with \TeX{}}
For Unix, \ProgName{ispell} was long the program of choice; it is well
integrated with \ProgName{emacs}, and deals with some \TeX{} syntax.
However, it has more-or-less been replaced everywhere, by
\ProgName{aspell}, which was designed as a successor, and certainly
performs better on most metrics; there remains some question as to its
performance with \AllTeX{} sources.
For Windows, there is a good spell checker incorporated into many of
the \Qref*{shell/editor}{Q-editors} combinations that are available.
The spell checker from the (now defunct) 4All\TeX{} shell remains
available as a separate package, \ProgName{4spell}.
For the Macintosh, \ProgName{Excalibur} is the program of choice. It
will run in native mode on both sorts of Macintosh. The distribution
comes with dictionaries for several languages.
The \acro{VMS} Pascal program \ProgName{spell} makes special cases of
some important features of \LaTeX{} syntax.
For \MSDOS{}, there are several programs. \ProgName{Amspell} can be
called from within an editor, and \ProgName{jspell} is an extended
version of \ProgName{ispell}.
\begin{ctanrefs}
\item[4spell]\CTANref{4spell}
\item[amspell]\CTANref{amspell}
\item[aspell]Browse \CTANref{aspell}~--- choose just those language
dictionaries (under subdirectory \File{dict/}) that you need.
\item[excalibur]\CTANref{Excalibur}
\item[ispell]\CTANref{ispell}
\item[jspell]\CTANref{jspell}
\item[\nothtml{\bgroup\rmfamily}\acro{VMS}\nothtml{\egroup} spell]%
\CTANref{vmspell}
\item[winedt]\CTANref{winedt}
\end{ctanrefs}
\Question[Q-wordcount]{How many words have you written?}
One often has to submit a document (e.g., a paper or a dissertation)
under some sort of constraint about its size. Sensible people set a
constraint in terms of numbers of pages, but there are some that
persist in limiting the numbers of words you type.
A simple solution to the requirement can be achieved following a
simple observation: the powers that be are unlikely to count all the
words of a document submitted to them. Therefore, a statistical
method can be employed: find how many words there are on a full page;
find how many full pages there are in the document (allowing for
displays of various sorts, this number will probably not be an
integer); multiply the two. However, if the document to be submitted
is to determine the success of the rest of one's life, it takes a
brave person to thumb their nose at authority quite so
comprehensively\dots{}
The simplest method is to strip out the \AllTeX{} markup, and to count
what's left. On a Unix-like system, this may be done using
\ProgName{detex} and the built-in \ProgName{wc}:
\begin{verbatim}
detex <filename> | wc -w
\end{verbatim}
The \ProgName{latexcount} script does the same sort of job, in one
``step''; being a \ProgName{perl} script, it is in principle rather
easily configured (see documentation inside the script).
\ProgName{Winedt} (see \Qref[question]{editors and shells}{Q-editors})
provides this functionality direct in the Windows environment.
\ProgName{TeXcount} also goes a long way with heuristics for counting,
starting from a \LaTeX{} file; the documentation is comprehensive, and
you may try the script on-line via the % ! line break
\begin{wideversion}
\href{http://folk.uio.no/einarro/Comp/texwordcount.html}{package home page}.
\end{wideversion}
\begin{narrowversion}
package home page~(see
\URL{http://folk.uio.no/einarro/Comp/texwordcount.html}).
\end{narrowversion}
Even quite sophisticated stripping of \AllTeX{} markup can never be
entirely reliable, however: that markup itself may contribute typeset
words, and this could be a problem. The \Package{wordcount} package
contains a Bourne shell (i.e., typically Unix) script for running a
\LaTeX{} file with a special piece of supporting \TeX{} code, and then
counting word indications in the log file. This is probably as
accurate automatic counting as you can get, if it works for you.
\begin{ctanrefs}
\item[detex]\CTANref{detex}
\item[latexcount.pl]\CTANref{latexcount}
\item[TeXcount]\CTANref{texcount}
\item[wordcount]\CTANref{wordcount}
\end{ctanrefs}
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