LATEX and Beamer: Open Source Alternatives to Microsoft Office For Documents and Presentations —or— Why Keep Payin’ ’da Man When You Can Do Better? Mark R. Galvin K Nelson Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics Oregon State University 13 November 2008 Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer What’s This All About? Objective is to answer the following questions: What is Free/Open Source Software? What the heck are TEX and LATEX? Who uses LATEX? Why would I use LATEX? Why wouldn’t I use LATEX? How do I get LATEX? How do I use LATEX? A Note on Beamer: Beamer is one of several available presentation making packages that use the LATEX markup format and the TEX engine to produce beautiful presentations (like this one) in PDF format. Beamer won’t explicitly be discussed. Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Free/Open Source Software . think free speech, not free beer What is F/OSS? Free/open source software (F/OSS) is software for which the human-readable source code is made available to the user of the software, who can then modify the code in order to fit the software to the user’s needs. The source code is the set of written instructions that define a program in its original form, and when it’s made fully accessible programmers can read it, modify it, and redistribute it, thereby improving and adapting the software. In this manner the software evolves at a rate unmatched by traditional proprietary software. Where is it? Hiding on the internet. IfGoogle doesn’t find it, try the Free Software Foundation, SourceForge.net, University Media Labs, Government Laboratories, User Groups, etc. Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Why Use F/OSS? You can usually get a commercial product for your need Way more features than you need Freeware and shareware usually come with baggage You can’t afford custom software but with F/OSS . An equivalent to most every major software package exists, pre-compiled and ready to use No proprietary issues, high degree of compatibility among F/OSS packages Most “established” packages have user groups willing to help you understand how to use or modify the software It’s always free, and usually doesn’t cost anything either Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer The Drawbacks F/OSS is great, but sometimes it isn’t that great Usually less polished than commercial software Every user is expected to be a beta tester May not (yet) be optimized for speed Sometimes limited (or no) documentation Few F/OSS packages are standards Compatibility with commercial software may lag one or more generations behind Remember, this software is mostly written by computer nerds in their free time. Your expectations should be proportional to the price you paid. In many ways, getting F/OSS is like dumpster diving for furniture. You might need to clean it up, but once you do everyone thinks you inherited a family heirloom. Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer F/OSS EssentialsI Some Commercial Equivalents: Commercial F/OSS Website Microsoft Office Open Office www.openoffice.org Microsoft Internet Explorer Mozilla Firefox www.getfirefox.com Microsoft Outlook Mozilla Thunderbird www.mozilla.org/thunderbird Microsoft Word Abiword www.abisource.com Norton Antivirus ClamWin www.clamwin.com Adobe Photoshop GIMPShop www.gimpshop.net Windows Media Player VLC Player www.videolan.org/vlc WinFTP Filezilla filezilla.sourceforge.net Adobe Acrobat PDFCreator OSUWare CD Google Earth NASA Worldwind worldwind.arc.nasa.gov Mathmatica Maxima maxima.sourceforge.net MATLAB Octave www.gnu.org/software/octave Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer F/OSS EssentialsII Other Good Stuff I Like: Package Description Website MiKTeX Windows LATEX implementation www.miktex.org RedHat Linux operating system www.redhat.com PovRay Ray-tracing program www.povray.org TrueCrypt Encrypt memory stick www.truecrypt.org Handbrake Copy DVD to your hard drive handbrake.m0k.org JabRef Bibliography reference manager jabref.sourceforge.net True Combat: Elite Multiplayer combat/action www.truecombatelite.net Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer The TEX Document Typesetting System TEX was created by Donald Knuth (and others) to typeset computer programming manuscripts Catalyst was obsolescence of hot press typesetting First release took over ten years to complete Included METAFONT font description system which allows the designer to describe characters algorithmically TEX markup language is primitive by today’s standards, but was very advanced when first released Copyright vested with American Mathematical Society Availability of source code led to other TEX dialects Still others created markup formats (i.e., have collections of macros written in one of the TEX dialects) to simplify writing a TEX-based document LATEX is most common plain TEX markup format, but many others based on the other TEX dialects exist What you use is generally what you start with “We live in Iowa, son, that makes us corn people!” Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer The “Levels” of a TEX System Engines TEX, pdfTEX, XeTEX, LuaTEX, etc. These are the actual executable binaries which implement the different TEX dialects. Formats LATEX, plain TEX, etc. These are the TEX-based languages in which you actually write documents. Packages geometry, lm, amsmath, etc. These are add-ons to the basic TEX system, developed independently, providing additional typesetting features, fonts, documentation, etc. The CTAN web sites provide access to the vast majority of packages in the TEX world. Front ends Emacs, TEXShop, TEXnicCenter, WinEdt, LEd, etc. These editors are what you use to create a document file. TEX documents are independent of any particular editor; the actual TEX typesetting program itself does not care how you created your file. This is in stark contrast to programs such as Microsoft Word, where editing and typesetting are fundamentally intertwined. Distributions MiKTEX, TEX Live, etc. These are the large collections of TEX-related software to be downloaded and installed. Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer What is Good About LATEX? Break free of the Gates’ Jedi mind trick. Superior typographic quality Output is, typographically, far better than any of the alternatives Output device independence Formatting applied does not depend on the printer designated as “current” Portability Runs on virtually any operating system; output formats are not proprietary Document longevity No planned obsolescence here. Macros and other programmatic features LATEX lets the user define macros that can be used repeatedly Mathematical typesetting There’s a reason Word has a LATEX-based equation editor add-in Technical support from the package author (usually) There are a large number of TEX and LATEX users groups Most package writers provide contact information (and actually answer email, even if half-a-world away) Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Some Examples Photoelectric Effect (Author: Poul Riis, created using Tikz) Incoming γ-photon Photoelectron from an + inner shell +++ Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Some Examples Compton Scattering (Author: Poul Riis, created using Tikz) Incoming γ-photon Scattered electron from an outer shell Scattered γ-photon + +++ Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Some Examples Pair Production (Author: Poul Riis, created using Tikz) Positron Incoming γ-photon + Electron +++ Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Some Examples Pressurized Water Reactor (Author: Gloria Faccanoni, created using Tikz) Containment structure Water vapor Reactor Pressurizer vessel Control rods Turbine Steam Steam generator (heat change) Generator Water coolant Cooling (330 ◦C) Condenser Pump tower Reactor Liquid core Cooling water Water coolant Pump (280 ◦C) Pump Pressurized water Water and steam Water (primary loop) (secondary loop) (cooling loop) Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer 1 Some Examples Nerdy Time Plot of Neutronics Project Data Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer Some Examples A Sexy Piece of a Neutronics Project Writeup The updated e ffective multiplication factor, kℓ+1, is defined as: L ℓ+1 ℓ ˜ ℓ+1 ˜ ℓ+1 k = k dx ν1Σ f,1(x)φ1 (x) + ν2Σ f,2(x)φ2 (x) Z0 h i ˜ ℓ+1 where φg (x) is the flux in group g that was determined through the polynomial expansion given by Equation ( 4), for the current iteration, and kℓ is the multiplication factor determined during the previous iteration. When the above equation is integrated, it is integrated on the interval [0,L /2] for node 1 then again on the interval [L /2,L] for node 2 as L/2 L ℓ+1 ℓ ℓ+1 ℓ+1 ℓ+1 ℓ+1 k = k dx ν1Σ f,1(x)φ˜ (x) + ν2Σ f,2(x)φ˜ (x) + dx ν1Σ f,1(x)φ˜ (x) + ν2Σ f,2(x)φ˜ (x) 1 2 Node 1 1 2 Node 2 Z0 LZ/2 h i h i L/2 L/2 ℓ ℓ+1 ℓ ℓ+1 = k dx ν1Σ f,1(x)φ˜ (x) + k dx ν2Σ f,2(x)φ˜ (x) 1 Node 1 2 Node 1 Z0 Z0 h i h i L L ℓ ℓ+1 ℓ ℓ+1 +k dx ν1Σ f,1(x)φ˜ (x) + k dx ν2Σ f,2(x)φ˜ (x) 1 Node 2 2 Node 2 LZ/2 LZ/2 h i h i Mark R. Galvin/K Nelson LATEX and Beamer What is Bad About LATEX? Some find it a turn-off, others a challenge. More moving parts Using LATEX means using an editor, LATEX itself, a document previewer (such as Adobe Reader), and usually a few other assorted programs; WYSIWYG word processors are self-contained Difficulty knowing/remembering markup commands Learning the markup commands takes time, and can be frustrating Previewing delay There is a delay between typing something in the editor and seeing the result in the document previewer Possibility of syntax errors Unlike in a WYSIWYG word processor, it is possible to create a tex file that LATEX will reject, cryptically complaining of a syntax error Adding new fonts You can’t just download some ttf (TrueType Font) file off the web and start using it (but then again, most fonts aren’t worth using anyway) Lack of support for some document formats If someone hasn’t written a package for it, LATEX doesn’t support it Mark R.