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Large Website Layout Modifications
It has been quite some time since my last change to the HTML/CSS layout. But the wait has been worth it! Over the past two months I have been redesigning several aspects of the website to make them even more awesome!
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A Year in Review: 2015
2015 is over, so that marks a good moment to look back at last year. 2015 was a pretty big year for me, both personally as professionally and also one of the most educational yet.
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LaTeX Tips and Tricks
LaTeX has its own strengths, but also quirks. Typesetting what you really have in mind is not always very straightforward and requires some experience. Here are some general tips to quickly solve certain problems or make your LaTeX documents even better.
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Modular LaTeX Documents
When writing really long documents with or without other people, a single source file might not suffice. The LaTeX source file will be very long (thousands and thousands of lines). Finding your way around the document will become increasingly difficult up to a point where it is nearly impossible. Spreading the content over different files is the solution. By splitting the document per chapter or section, we avoid extremely long source files and maintain a clear view over the document structure.
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Fixing Xfig Fonts
Xfig is a nice little Linux programme for creating vector graphics. It takes some getting used to, but once you know some quirks and conventions, it is pretty easy to work with. The best thing about it is: it allows you to export SVG and EPS. This way, you can create nice vector graphics for your documents, even if you don’t know (or want to learn) TikZ.
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References in LaTeX
Good referencing is one of the things LaTeX excels at. LaTeX supports an easy and powerful syntax for referencing to tables, sections, figures etc. These references can even behave like links we know from the web.
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Tables in LaTeX
Tables in LaTeX are very easy to do once you know a little bit about the syntax. The default way to create tables is with
tabular, an environment that creates an n-by-m table that can be filled with data (and sub-tables). -
Python Scripting and LaTeX
Python is a dynamic programming language that allows fast, platform independent development. It is a high level programming language that uses a clear and consistent syntax, aiming for both concise and readable code. In contrast to MATLAB, it is a general purpose language, not directly aimed at numerical calculations. Additional functionality is provided by packages. For scientific functionality, the
SciPylibrary (a package set) is key. This library adds functionality for fast numerical calculations, simulation and data visualization (and more). In this example, we will specifically make use of theNumPyandmatplotlibpackages. -
MATLAB Scripting and LaTeX
MATLAB is a powerful environment for numerical computations. Consequently, it is often used in academia and industry to quickly perform simulations, test models, perform matrix computations and visualize data. It provides toolboxes for signal processing, neural networks, curve fitting and so on.
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Inserting Data From File in LaTeX for Plotting
Plotting data for reports is often done in programmes such as R, matplotlib or MATLAB. However, sometimes one wants to have a consistent layout for all plots and this is far from easy when you need to combine some of these tools. One way to tackle this, is to store all plot data in a CSV-file and then import that into LaTeX. We can plot it using a special library if the plot does not contain too many points (more on that later).