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LaTeX sits a little uneasily on SO as is shown by the repeated attempts to close questions as "not programming related" followed by responses about LaTeX being Turing-complete. Having a stand-alone LaTeX site might also attract more people as non-programmers may feel more comfortable and welcome. – Rob Hyndman Jun 3 '10 at 2:57

I suggest we broaden a bit the topic to include: TeX, LaTeX and friends And yes, the description is waay too long – Juan Antonio Jun 3 '10 at 17:09

@Rob @jalf The primary audience of SO is programmers - only a small percentage of whom use Tex or LaTeX. LaTeX will never be more than a fringe topic there. I would expect a site about Tex and LateX to be dominated by mathematicians, physicists and other scientists who are heavy users of LaTex in the course of their work. Many of these would not be likely to be members of SO, as programming is not a big part of their work. Of course there will be some overlap between these two communities: many mathematicians and scientists are also serious programmers. – Stephen C. Steel Jun 4 '10 at 20:53

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75 Example Questions (10 closed)

active oldest votes

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added by robin girard Jun 3 '10 at 17:55

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added by Charles Stewart Jun 7 '10 at 7:36

closed as off topic by Julian, KennyTM, Amir Rachum, Juan Antonio, cool-RR Jun 13 '10 at 21:27

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

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added by Simon Brown Jun 16 '10 at 15:19

closed as off topic by Juan Antonio, Andrew Stacey, Charles Stewart, foxxtrot, radius Jun 21 '10 at 1:31

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

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added by Scott Morrison Jun 17 '10 at 5:06

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added by Egon Willighagen Jun 17 '10 at 14:24

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added by derobert Jun 18 '10 at 18:22

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added by radius Jun 21 '10 at 1:37

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added by Peter Smit Jun 21 '10 at 3:14

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added by axiomsofchoice Jun 21 '10 at 19:33

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added by axiomsofchoice Jun 21 '10 at 19:35

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added by Robert Munteanu Jun 21 '10 at 19:36

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added by axiomsofchoice Jun 21 '10 at 19:38

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added by Robert Munteanu Jun 21 '10 at 19:39

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added by Robert Munteanu Jun 21 '10 at 19:40

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added by axiomsofchoice Jun 21 '10 at 19:41

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added by Robert Munteanu Jun 21 '10 at 19:44

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added by Robert Munteanu Jun 21 '10 at 19:45

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added by ajray Jun 21 '10 at 20:04

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added by ajray Jun 21 '10 at 20:07

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added by Egon Willighagen Jun 21 '10 at 20:36

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added by rlb.usa Jun 3 '10 at 16:21

	I would prefer to see this question for every OS – Juan Antonio Jun 3 '10 at 17:10
	Substitute [free] with [for OS <X> ] – rlb.usa Jun 3 '10 at 18:10
	Duplicate of area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/2148/… – Juan Antonio Jun 13 '10 at 10:19

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added by Julian Jun 10 '10 at 17:25

closed as off topic by Amir Rachum, Vortico, Juan Antonio, cool-RR, dodobas Jun 15 '10 at 8:05

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

I'm struggling to find good off-topic questions. I think this clearly belongs to the off-topic land. – Julian Jun 10 '10 at 17:26

Agreed (but out of off-topic votes) – jalf Jun 11 '10 at 8:08

Jalf, you can unset another off-topic vote, and reuse that vote for this question. – Egon Willighagen Jun 21 '10 at 20:42

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added by Juan Antonio Jun 13 '10 at 10:05

closed as off topic by David Thornley, Stephen C. Steel, Scott Morrison, Andrew Stacey, Charles Stewart Jun 18 '10 at 20:13

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	NaGE: weaker sibling of your TeX Book qn. – Charles Stewart Jun 15 '10 at 10:25
	No, this is different, this is about programming problems trying to compile, e.g. the C or whatever sources of the "bibtex" binary. Since the sources of BibTeX are open, there is nothing wrong with doing that (as opposed to compiling with "tex" the sources of the TeX Book, which is not allowed). – Juan Antonio Jun 16 '10 at 7:41
	@Juan: "Compile" in TeX could mean "compile to a document." Maybe you should say "compile the BibTeX program from source". – KennyTM Jun 16 '10 at 8:04
	Edited to improve clarity – Juan Antonio Jun 17 '10 at 7:23

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added by Justin L. Jun 19 '10 at 9:23

NaGE: weaker, vaguer sibling of area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/2148/… – Charles Stewart Jun 19 '10 at 11:07

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added by Julian Jun 2 '10 at 16:09

I'm not keen on this question. This is already covered in the symbols list, or can be found via the excellent Detexify website. I wouldn't "vote to close" on this particular question (since the asker may not know about those two), but I would hope that there wouldn't be too many of this type. – Andrew Stacey Jun 4 '10 at 6:43

Yes, you're right. A question like this should be closed as redundant and pointed to a hypothetical question "Where can I find a symbol list in LaTeX?". – Julian Jun 4 '10 at 13:38

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added by ire_and_curses Jun 3 '10 at 16:13

	Based on the 6th most popular LaTeX question on SO: What is the fastest way to learn latex basics – ire_and_curses Jun 10 '10 at 14:41
	this is a good on-topic question, but we've already got enough examples of great on-topic examples. – Juan Antonio Jun 13 '10 at 9:57
	Voted 'not good': 1. The proposal is listed as "Q&A for experts". 2. question is subjective: what is 'competent'. I have been using LaTeX for years now, but hardly feel competent. – Egon Willighagen Jun 21 '10 at 20:38

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added by robin girard Jun 3 '10 at 17:52

I don't quite understand what you're asking - do you mean how to combine TeX files? – Maxim Zaslavsky Jun 8 '10 at 19:48

Yes, I think that probably the question is about \input or \include – Juan Antonio Jun 8 '10 at 22:12

Maybe the question should be rewritten as "How do a structure a very big document with latex that uses many tex files" – KeithB Jun 17 '10 at 16:12

After altering the question as KeithB worded it, it would be a good on-topic question. – hayalci Jun 18 '10 at 13:30

I changed the question according to KeithB's suggestion. Thanks – robin girard Jun 18 '10 at 21:40

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added by Scott Morrison Jun 3 '10 at 19:47

While I don't think this is a great example question, I DO think it should be on-topic. There are things I do specifically for LaTeX sources under revision control. Most of them have nothing to do with the VCS itself, but with making diffs between source versions as meaningful as possible (e.g. starting each sentence on a new line in the source, so edits don't cause a cascade of trivial differences due to changes in line wrapping). – Stephen C. Steel Jun 8 '10 at 15:51

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added by Julian Jun 2 '10 at 14:24

too subjective. – Tobias Kienzler Jun 2 '10 at 14:25

Yes, it is too subjective. But this should be used as a guide, with one suggested editor per answer, and the votes of the community. – Julian Jun 2 '10 at 14:28

If anything a CW question but still too subjective. – Good Person Jun 2 '10 at 15:37

Yes, it should be CW, I totally agree. – Julian Jun 2 '10 at 16:02

It's a perfectly good question. Of course it's subjective, but it's still something that 1) people want to know, and where 2) answers can actually be helpful. – jalf Jun 4 '10 at 13:51

show 4 more comments

up vote -3 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 4 '10 at 19:52

closed as off topic by Julian, Rob Hyndman, Konrad Rudolph, Peter K., Stephen C. Steel Jun 8 '10 at 15:58

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

So obviously off topic that this does not at all clarify what is on and off-topic on the proposed site. – derobert Jun 18 '10 at 18:11

@derobert, I concur. Someone with this question would never end up on a LaTeX Q&A site. – earlNameless Jun 19 '10 at 14:01

I'm not so sure it's so unlikely to be asked. I can imagine someone asking something very similar, like "I know I can do [xyz] in LaTeX, how do I do it in Word?" – Amir Rachum Jun 19 '10 at 15:05

@Amir Rachum: I can believe someone would ask it, just like I can believe someone would ask for computer support on SO. But that's from either not at all understanding the purpose of the site or from hoping to get away with it, not from a reasonable belief that its actually on-topic. Does noting that Microsoft's formula editor is off-topic really help explain what a TeX site is? – derobert Jun 19 '10 at 20:31

@derobert, @Amir: Office 2007's Formula Editor was redesigned, largely based on Tex's layout, and the team responsible consulted Knuth on issues with it. I don't think this is in the top 5 off-topic examples, but the selection of off-topic questions isn't great. Should I delete this question - it would reduce the number of off-topic examples with 20+ votes that we have? Would it make sense to add new off-topic examples at this stage? – Charles Stewart Jun 20 '10 at 10:52

up vote -3 down vote

added by Lucas Jun 17 '10 at 15:55

closed as off topic by tzenes, Scott Morrison, Ben Webster, KeithB, Andrew Stacey Jun 18 '10 at 9:12

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

subjective and they don't compare well in general – Lucas Jun 17 '10 at 15:56

once I suggested a very similar question, and was tagged as on-topic :P – Juan Antonio Jun 18 '10 at 5:27

up vote -4 down vote

added by Juan Antonio Jun 3 '10 at 17:14

closed as off topic by ire_and_curses, Julian, Lazer, Peter K., Tobias Kienzler Jun 6 '10 at 15:01

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

No? Ok, how about LaTeX clothing? :P – Juan Antonio Jun 5 '10 at 1:17

Great offtopic question, indeed! – Julian Jun 5 '10 at 7:10

Funny, off topic, but other questions that are almost on topic but still off topic would be better to include because it would help delineate the site better. – Jared Updike Jun 10 '10 at 6:40

other questions that are almost on topic but still off topic - It's hard to get agreement on these. One "funny" like this is good for the off-topic list. – Charles Stewart Jun 10 '10 at 7:22

fully agree, this is a funny off-topic example but not a great off topic example: it does not give any information. – robin girard Jun 15 '10 at 6:36

show 2 more comments

up vote -4 down vote

added by drknexus Jun 17 '10 at 14:29

I Googled Sweeve and maybe this is on topic, maybe not, I don't know enough to answer. So it may well be a great border-line thing. But, I wonder, will enough people understand this question to make it a great example? – derobert Jun 18 '10 at 18:15

I think it is on-topic, but probably not a great example. – Juan Antonio Jun 19 '10 at 10:19

up vote -6 down vote

added by Juan Antonio Jun 5 '10 at 9:51

Provide more detail about error messages, link to source so others can try to help, etc. – Jared Updike Jun 10 '10 at 6:38

No answers, please, unless they help make clear why the question should be on or off topic. They distract from the point of this phase. If you think it is good to provide an answer, ask it on SO and answer it yourself. – Charles Stewart Jun 10 '10 at 7:25

I intended this as an off-topic question. The background story is that the sources of the TeX Book were made available by Knuth as an example, but purposely do not compile so you won't be able to reproduce a printed copy of the book. But maybe if I have to give such a long explanation, it's not a great example of an off-topic question? – Juan Antonio Jun 13 '10 at 10:10

My intention was to produce a "can you help me to do this illegal/unethical thing?" kind of question. – Juan Antonio Jun 13 '10 at 10:41

IMHO it is on topic, but a bad question (it either needs details of the error message you get when you try to compile it) so I'm going to say "Not a good example" – rjmunro Jun 16 '10 at 23:50

show 1 more comment

up vote -10 down vote

added by Master Of Disaster Jun 6 '10 at 4:26

"If Knuth is such a big computer expert, how come the language he invented is such a pathological basket case?" – Master Of Disaster Jun 7 '10 at 10:40

Definitely on-topic, and debugging the various *TeX*s is a really important domain, one that I think should be represented in our 10 on-top examples. But please, @Kinopiko, please reword it so that it's not phrased in such a non-constructive way. – Charles Stewart Jun 13 '10 at 11:58

Yes, I also think the problem with this question is that it is a bit rude. – Julian Jun 14 '10 at 11:59

Hmm, I've altered it a bit. – Master Of Disaster Jun 15 '10 at 13:42