Complete issue 30:3 as one pdf - TUG

TEX Education EUROTEX 2009 E29
%
%Draw regular surface which is in sight
for k=0 step 1 until n:
draw point k of p100..point n-k of p200;
endfor
%Clip to boundary, mod July 2009
clip currentpicture to (-1.5size,-size)--
(-1.5size,5size)--
(1.5size,5size)--(1.5size,-size)-cycle;
endfig;
end
Mathematically, I love the above included regular surfaces
due to Gabo, because they are constructed from 1dimensionaldata,theboundingcurvesin3D.Thenecessary
parameterized projection technique also facilitates
animation by changing the viewingangles.
For the rst time I emulated the real Gabo by not
erasingthe‘hidden’lines.Inrealitytheyarenothidden,
because the object is made of transparent perspex. I lied
abitinthepast,becausewhenIdidnoterasethehidden
lines the reverse video picture looked too much blurred
by detail. For this conference I ne-tuned the picture
withthinner lines andinblue, whichlooks OK to me.
Reuse
Sooner or later one arrives at the situation to organize
the wealth of macros, pictures, references, tools and
ilks for reuse. This gave rise to my BLUe collection.
The idea in BLUe is that all the macros you use most
of the time are bundled into a blue.tex kernel. The
rest is split up into: tools, formats, pictures, references,
addresses,. . .of which BLUe will reuse parts on the y,
unaware of the ling system of the computer. Reuse is a
general important aspect, and ipso facto in the lifecycle
ofdocument parts.
Produce → Distribute → Consume
↑ ↑ ↓
reuse ← retrieve ← store
Withamonolithiccollectionyouhaveitall,allthetime.
I decided to adhere to the kernel&modules adage, and
to use only from a module what is needed, realized by
a selective loading technique, similar to the one of M.
Diaz, asmentioned inappendixDofthe TEXbook.
One might argue that this economy has become more
and more irrelevant, because of the enormous increase
of computer speed and memory, since the birth of TEX.
Partly true: sometimes parts conict, e.g. one either
formats a report or an article, and in general it is safe
to avoid possible conicts.
To illuminate this note, I have reused pictures be it
from pic.dat or from separatePostScript les.
Sometimesreuseimplies some extra work.
I also reused the commands included in \loadtocmacros
together with \pasteuptoc for a mini-ToC to
keep track of the structure while creating this note. Enpassant
the Contentsat the beginning wasobtained.
This proceedings submission diers from the preproceedings
one, because working on the slides gave
feedback. The 2.5D GABO’s as well as the Escher Cube
have earned aplace fortheir own.
Aninvokeoftheone-part\bluepicturesfollowedby
oneormore \picturenameswillloadtheindicated(TEX)
pictures and make them available under their names.
At the time I did not construct a library of PostScript
pictures, because I did not know how to supply these to
\epsfbox. There is no pspic.dat, alas. If time permits
Iwillthink it over.
Another aspect is the search path of drivers, if only
theylookedinto TeX inputor texmflocal;wheretoput
pspic.dat?
It is not so handy to put the pictures directory in the
sameplaceasthemaindocument.Idonotknowhowto
add searchpaths.
Ifonly \pdfTEX couldhandlePostScript...
As alternative to \bluepictures one can use the underlying
two-part macros, sort ofenvironment
\beginpictures
\picturename1
...
\endpictures
but, alas TEX has no garbage collector, it would not save
onmemory, it onlyreduces the possibilityofconicts.
Similar structures hold for tools, formats, references,
. . .
In2002IworkedonmacrosfortheautomaticgenerationofPDFbookmarksforthe((sub)sub)headingtitles.It
worked, even presented them at the EuroTEX, if I’m not
mistaken.
But...
I did not nish the macros, maybe I should. I noticed
that in 2005 A. Heck did not provide for bookmarks in
his MetaPost note published in MAPS, also available on
his WWWsite. Isthere aneed?Rhetoricalquestion.