Lmst

@naia
(b) The modern engines are LuaTeX and LuaMetaTeX. All development is happening there (XeTeX is unmaintained, pdfTeX is in maintenance-only mode afaik).

(c) Yes. But there are many auxiliary programs that are not TeX macros like biber. There is also now the expl3 programming layer which is TeX macros but a lot more convenient (if a lot uglier-looking).

As far as I know, nobody is using Pascal anymore. I think LuaTeX uses C (or CWEB) (some autoconverted, but a lot is rewritten). There's also code in Lua ofc (luaotfload for example, does font loading in LuaTeX).

Most of the mastodon TeX crowd hang out at #TeXLaTeX, so that's a place to start.

@LupinoArts is it so? I thought it was an epsilon (as in a small positive value). I've certainly heard it being called “two epsilon”. I suppose writing out epsilon would be hard which is why they just write LaTeX2e in plain text.

I know that Metafont versions tend towards e (Euler). But they don't actually typeset that out yet I think.

@steffo apologies for not waiting, but here is the answer: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/736133/nesting-commands-with-only-one-optional-argument

Seems like the optional argument handling is pretty primitive with the old way.

@steffo Hmm. Using the NewDocumentCommand interface seems to make it work as expected:
```
\NewDocumentCommand{\Foo}{O{Foo}}{\textbf{#1}}
\NewDocumentCommand{\Bar}{O{Bar}}{\textit{#1}}
```
I wonder why this happens. Is it fine with you if I ask this on TeX.SE (unless you are planning to do so yourself)

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Results from DART:
Changed the orbit by 33 minutes, measured a beta of 3.6, have a 3D model (and lots of cool images) of the ejecta.

This suggests that kinetic impact is very efficient way to redirect an asteroid, especially since most asteroids are very loosely bound, like Didymos/Dimorphos and Benu.

DART Pre-impact orbital period 11 hours, 55 minutes. Post Impact orbital period 11 hours, 22 minutes. Illustration of the orbit of Dimorphos (150 meters) around Didymos (760 meters), with the original wider orbit and new closter orbit.

Four scenraios for kinetic impact:
No ejecta, momentum factor =1, some ejecta, DART ejecta, momentum factor ~3.6, Lots of ejecta.

3D model of the ejecta post impact. The asteriod is a flattened sphere, like a lentil. The ejecta forms an incomplete, wide cone. Within the cone are two streams going diagonally up and to the left and down and to the right.
An insert on the left shows an black and white image from LICIACube post-impact showing a similar structure.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

The skies of Chile’s Atacama Desert, renowned as the darkest and clearest of the world, are now at risk from an industrial megaproject.

Electricity company AES Andes proposed to locate a large-scale industrial complex just a few kilometres away from our Paranal Observatory. If constructed, the resulting dust emissions, increased atmospheric turbulence, and especially light #pollution, would irreparably impact the capabilities for astronomical observation.

We urge the involved parties, specifically AES Andes, to work with the Government of #Chile to relocate this megaproject to a zone compatible with industrial development without jeopardising the skies of Paranal.

📷 ESO/P. Horálek

#environment #astrodon #astronomy #science

A view of the Milky Way arching across the night sky above the Atacama Desert in Chile. The foreground features the buildings of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), with a person standing on a raised platform. A sign saying "skies at risk" is overlaid on the image.

@jelte @martin_ueding @nikitonsky Well, I had to edit it a little bit to make the text fit better, but I like this version (hehe) better.

Title: Shame Versioning
Diagram with large number: 2.7.123
First “2” is commented: Shame version. We couldn't be arsed to make Cool New Stuff work with Old Stuff. Your plugins and scripts no longer work. Good luck.
Second “7” is commented: Proud version. We added Cool New Stuff, and Old Stuff still works, just the way you like it!
Third “123” is commented: Default version. We fixed an issue or improved a feature.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

I like it.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR| September 01 2024

It is time to honor Emmy Noether with a momentum unit

Geoff Nunes, Jr.

Am. J. Phys. 92, 647 (2024)
https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0229624

I have been teaching physics, on and off, for 30 years now, and every time I get to momentum and start writing “kg m/s” for the unit, my students ask if there is some official unit they can use instead. And every time, I have to inform them that, sadly, there is not.

The International System of Units contains seven base units and 22 derived units. Of these units, 17 are named in honor of people, every one of whom is a man. It seems to me that momentum offers the perfect opportunity to admit a woman to that club. For several years, I have been declaring that, in my class, one kg m/s is equal to one Noether, in honor of Emmy Noether, whose theorem shows, among other things, that space translation symmetry results in conservation of momentum.

Formal adoption of this new unit by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures may take a while. I propose that we teachers start the process from the grassroots. Let us adopt the Noether in our own classrooms and abbreviate it Nr (which is shorter—what my students want—and which will honor Emmy Noether's contributions to physics—what is long overdue).

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

Messin' around with the famous MeerKAT galactic center data. The provided spectral index is certainly is a different way to go about colorizing an image. Tried to fix some of the dark halos around the bright nebulosity. Not sure whether they were introduced during mosaicing, or if it's just a product of creating imagery from radio data.

Looking toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy in radio "light", revealing strange, wispy curtains and many bubbles of nebulosity. The galactic plane is oriented diagonally, starting from the upper left down to the lower right, as it commonly appears when being presented in a "north is up" orientation. There are very few if any stars; point sources instead tend to be background galaxies or perhaps compact nebulas. The center leans toward a reddish orange color, with many surrounding nebulas leaning more toward blue and cyan. Some of the bubbles near the upper left are yellow and orange. The author of this description is not comfortable enough with her limited knowledge (she read a wikipedia article) to describe exactly what the colors mean.

@drj Rg is the chemical symbol for Roentgenium, so there is a possibility. I've been wanting to design a periodic table for a while so ig this is my motivation now.

Arhinni is a beautiful font; especially love the numerals.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

New font: Mancine. Based on calligraphy with a 150° nib angle and Art Nouveau. Read about it here: https://www.herzbergdesign.com/blog/2024/5/26/on-mancine #advertisement

An art nouveau lockup featuring stylized peacocks that reads “The Herzberg Design Co presents: Mancine”

Type set in Mancine reading: “There is no such joy in the tavern as upon the road thereto”

A waterfall specimen of Mancine’s uppercase

@johnbutler I found it a few weeks ago via Acerola's video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-9UHZFBH08) about his game Philokalia (https://itch.io/jam/acerola-jam-0/rate/2580856). Immediately joined his discord just to find out which font it was because it was so good looking.

Dark room with a single open window on the left, and sunlight through the window reflecting off a nearby wall. The word Philokalia is set in Ten Mincho bottom left, with a subhead of “love of the beautiful” in Ten Mincho Italic.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

Yesterday, we collectively drew letters using metapost in in the browser-based plancton editor. The template is based on a version of Times originally drawn for 4.75pt.
The students had great fun.

@panefarre named the font »Real Time«.

A photo of a projection of letters in the browser based plancton editor. It shows text in different sizes; some character overviews, and the beginning of The Metamorphosis by Kafka.

A poster showing type held by a right hand; a left hand pointing on the poster.

The poster reads at the top »Real Time v.1«.
Below it are a character overview and some specimen text.

A scan of uppercase letter X placed on a grid. This grid was used to draw the letter in Metapost.

A plotter plotting the poster.
In blue at the top:
All characters that were drawn: A-z plus numerals.

Below in red: a specimen text being drawn. The pen plotter is at works.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

Look at these beauties:

The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Atomic Radiation

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

No, there is no Papyrus Bold (https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/1076/papyrus). The SNL writers had to stray a bit further from reality for yesterday’s update to their surprisingly popular Papyrus sketch of 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8PdffUfoF0

#SNL @SaturdayNightLive #Papyrus #Font #Typeface

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

WIP. Full Analogue. Making a black hole inspired by the brand-new photograph of the one inside Sagittarius A that I saw at Professor Brian Cox's lecture a week or so ago. It was breathtaking, and quite emotional!
I’ve added the colour since and the completed version will be seen on the project when it goes live.

an ink drawing of a black hole like a letter O

@dyana yeah, it's a bit more common during night-time observations, but I've never had the chance to go to a place dark enough where it would be worth it. Hopefully soon.

@dyana In a astronomy discord server I’m in, this website was shared: https://almadenobservatory.net/CaptureEclipse/JudysCheckList.html

Good luck for weather. Do let the rest of us know how your experience was.

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

I worked with a blind mathematician at uni level.

We used LaTeX for our student which they accessed via Jaws or braille but had to strip macros out. Student could dictate LaTeX maths at speed. We also dug out an old Perkins brailler as more useful than duxbury or other software at times.

I retain an ongoing interest in access to maths for blind and partially sighted people.

https://aus.social/@onsman/112017348516562780

Average Alegreya Afficionado boosted:

Two months ago, our TPGi colleague Dan O'Mahony passed away unexpectedly.

In his honour, we decided to finish and publish an article he'd been working on for our KnowledgeBase, on making mathematics in web content accessible to assistive technology.

This blog post shares that article with the wider community.

RIP Dan.

https://www.tpgi.com/making-math-accessible/

#accessibility #a11y #math #maths #mathematics

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