figure dash in XeLaTeX

Figure dash ‒ is used for dashes in numbers (0763‒5345). It does not indicate a range, for which the en dash is used. In LaTeX there are commands for:

• endash: \textendash
• emdash: \textemdash
• minus: \textminus

Because the code for figure dash is 0x2012 I define the following command for a figure dash in XeLaTeX:

\newcommand{\textfigdash}{\char"2012 }%figure dash ‒

URL rewriting tutorial

a very good apache url rewriting tutorial is here.

latex: arabic footnotes in minipage environment

To get arabic footnote markers in the minipage environment renew \thempfn command:

\begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
   \renewcommand{\thempfn}{\arabic{mpfootnote}}
   ...
\end{minipage}


latex warning output

To make latex print an warning at output one can use:

• \@latex@warning{My message}prints "file.tex:10: My message on input line 10"
• \@latex@warning@no@line{My message}prints "file.tex:0: My message"

One can define a \todo command to get warnings about uncompleted sections. The following todo command will print a

TODO...

in the PDF and the warning message passed as a parameter \todo{Finish Thanks section!}

Code for pasting in LaTeX package(.sty file)

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\todo}[1][]{\@latex@warning{TODO #1}\fbox{TODO\dots}}
\makeatother


bugfix> remove unwanted spaces in tokenizer package

As notice here \GetTokens inserts unwanted spaces. The bugfix is to use the following code instead of just "\usepackage[trim]{tokenizer}":

\usepackage[trim]{tokenizer}  
 
\def\SH@GetTokens#1,#2\@empty{%
    \def\SH@token{#1}%
    \ifx\SH@trimtokens\SH@true% strip spaces if requested
        \TrimSpaces\SH@token%
    \fi%
    \SH@DefineCommand{\SH@FirstArgName}{\SH@token}%
    \SH@DefineCommand{\SH@SecondArgName}{#2}%
    }
\def\SH@CheckTokenSep#1,#2\@empty{%
    \def\SH@CTSArgTwo{#2}%
    \ifx\SH@CTSArgTwo\@empty%
        \edef\SH@TokenValid{\SH@false}%
    \else%
        \edef\SH@TokenValid{\SH@true}%
    \fi%
    }

I will report this bugfix to the developer Sascha Herpers

get rid of latex badboxes on framed figures

If you include in a LaTeX document a graphics file with a frame
\fbox{\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{file.png}}
you will get a badbox warning. The solution is to substract twice the size of the frame:
\fbox{\includegraphics[width=\textwidth-\fboxrule-\fboxrule]{file.png}}
For multicolumn:
\fbox{\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth-\fboxrule-\fboxrule]{file.png}}

virtual flying birds

I have created a 2D simulation of a a flock of flying birds that are scared of mouse movement. Here is the link www.virtual-flying-birds.tk.