Awesome

zTeX is a LaTeX bundle developed by LaTeX 3, that used for writing documents. It consists of 4 parts:

• zlatex: a document class for wrting Notes, Books and Slide
• ztikz: a package mainly for drawing 2D diagrams, plots functions. It also provide a interface to call the external program like python, gnuplot, mathematica and matlab.
• ztool(prepare): a package for providing some useful tools for LaTeX, like shipout, key-value set, box-align, command define and patch/Hook etc.
• zslide: a package for beamer. (Now has been deprecated)

User's Manual

Users's manual for this bundle is provided in the doc folder of each module.

[!IMPORTANT] Translation Needed, all manuals are written in Chinese now.

Installation

For zTeX bundle has not been uploaded to CTAN, This Installation guide will put the bundle in your USER's dir for LaTeX.

Download the latest version of the bundle from zTeX bundle latese Release. Unzip the file and copy the files to your LaTeX user's folder, we call it USER-DIR in the following. In windows, it is usually located at

C:\Users\<YourName>\texmf\tex\latex\

in linux it is usually located at

~/texmf/tex/latex/

then create a new folder named zTeX in the above USER-DIR and copy the files to USER-DIR/zTeX. After doing this, the USER-DIR structure will be like:

USER-DIR
└── zTeX
    ├── doc
    │   ├── zlatex_manual.pdf
    │   ├── ztex_intro.pdf
    │   ├── ztikz_manual.pdf
    │   └── ztool_manual.pdf
    ├── modules
    │   ├── ztikzmodule.cache.tex
    │   ├── ztikzmodule.gnuplot.tex
    │   ├── ztikzmodule.python.tex
    │   ├── ztikzmodule.wolfram.tex
    │   └── ztikzmodule.zdraw.tex
    ├── zlatex.cls
    ├── ztikz.sty
    └── ztool.sty

If possible, run texhash to update the database.

bundle introduction

Some detailed developing notes and bundle discription etc, are consist in ztex_intro. Feel free to read it ! If you just want to use this bundle immediately, see the following Basic Usage section for detailed guide.

Basic Usage

For detailed guide on how to use this bundle, please see the manuals in this Bundle.

zlatex

features

1. Are you always feel confused by the argument position and the corresponding meaning when using a LaTeX commands? zLaTeX solve this, most commands in zlatex is implemented as a key-value form, that makes you easy to use these commands. Some examples are:

• slide mode metadata setup

\zslideSetup{
  sec = {bg=ColorC,   fg=white, prefix=\ding{73}\ },
  UL  = {bg = ColorA, text=UL-TEXT\textcolor{white}{WHITE}, fg=ColorB},
  UR  = {text={\ifnum\arabic{subsection}=0\else Subsection\ \thesubsection\fi}},
  BC  = {text={\hyperlink{zslide-title-page}{\zslideTitle}}},
}

• example for zlatex options setup

\zlatexSetup{
  font = load, % require xetex or luatex
  toc = {
    column = 3,
    title = \hfill\large\normalfont CONTENTS {\sffamily\small NEW}\hfill,
    title-vspace = -5em
  },
  mathSpec = {
    alias=true,
    font=euler,
    envStyle=paris
  },
  bib_index = {
    load,
    source=ref.bib,
    backend=biber
  }
}

2. Are you always satisfied with the options provided by a LaTeX package or class ? zlatex provides the user so many options with default values to set up. Including:

• document class you used for writing, class options passing support.
• flexible page layout and side notes including figure in the margin.
• Many predefined theorem env styles and math font. You can also use your own env style by HOOK option provided by zlatex.
• Easy to transform your article or book to slide, if you use zlatex then you don't need to copy your source to a new beamer class and modify or add something in.
• Custom makes easy in slide mode, in slide mode zlatex provides a command \zslideSetup for custom slide theme, slide metadata, slide toc format, etc.
• Easy to expand ! For example, you can easily add other languags or math env using the inner commands \zlatex_keys_define:nn or the pre-defined hooks \zlatex_hook_preamble_last:n, \zlatex_hook_doc_begin:n to make your own commands or environment
• ...

3. Do you complain about the speed of a template ? zLaTeX will checks the options you passed to it and loads the corresponding packages, that makes this template runs blazing fast by default. BTW, zlatex will load the neccessary packags instead of loading nothing to speed up the compiling.

4. Can you understand the ouput error(warning) messages(log) when compiling ? zlatex implements a user-friendly message(log) system to tell the user what happend and how to deal with it. The message generated by zlatex something like this:

Class zlatex Warning: You use an invalid key "font" or key assign for it in
(zlatex)              the meta key "mathSpec", Valid options
(zlatex)              are:newtx,mtpro2,euler,mathpazo; Assignment Ignored and
(zlatex)              LaTeX default mathSpec settings substitute.


Class zlatex Warning: You use an invalid key "counter" or key assign for it in
(zlatex)              the meta key "mathSpec", Valid options
(zlatex)              are:alias(<bool>:false),envStyle,font(<choice>:newtx,mtpr
o2,euler,mathpazo);
(zlatex)              Assignment Ignored and LaTeX default mathSpec settings
(zlatex)              substitute.


Class zlatex Warning: You use an invalid key "openAll" or key assign for it in
(zlatex)              the meta key "layout", Valid options
(zlatex)              are:margin(<bool>:false),slide,aspect; Assignment
(zlatex)              Ignored and LaTeX default layout settings substitute.

sometimes, zlatex will automatically corrects the wrong commands for you and leaving a warning message:

Class zlatex Warning: MathEnv style:'paris' requires package 'tcolorbox' and
(zlatex)              'tikz', But either of them hasn't been loaded in your
(zlatex)              preamble. Reset to default 'plain' style now.

there are many other user-friendly features in zlatex, use it now ? See the following guide for a good starting.

article

A minimal working example acting as article is shown below:

\documentclass{zlatex}

\begin{document}
% your contents here
\end{document}

book

To use the book class for writing, an example may be:

\documentclass[class=book]{zlatex}

\begin{document}
\maketitle
\frontmatter
\tableofcontents

\mainmatter
\chapter{First Chapter}
\section{First section}
% your contents here
\end{document}

slide

To transform your article or book to slide, you need to add a slide option to layout key in class option. An example maybe:

\documentclass[
  layout={slide, aspect=16|9}
]{zlatex}


\begin{document}
% 1. your original contents writing in 'article' or 'book' here.
% 2. zlatex will automatically handle the original material in a proper way.
\end{document}

switch language

zlatex now support 2 languages: english and chinses, set the lang class option to en or cn to enable it. Set this key like:

\documentclass[lang=cn]{zlatex}

default language is english.

other options

There are so many options pre-defined in zlatex, please see the manual for more information.

other options

There are so many options pre-defined in zlatex, please see the manual for more information. Some options can only be declared in preamble, like: fancy, class while some can be used both preamble and after \begin{document}.

ztikz

Use command

\ztikzLoadModule{<module name>}

to load the ztikz to load the submodule of ztikz that you need. All available submodules are:

• cache
• gnuplot
• python
• wolfram
• zdraw

[!CAUTION] All these modules in ztikz need you to turn shell escape on. Be cautious when using this module.

preface

To make ztikz run in your local, there are some additional settings you need to do. ztikz split it's macros to different modules according to functions these macros play on. Now, the main modules are:

• cache: used to cache the result of the previous call of external programs. The cache function for original tikz is provided by tkz library external. Others are implemented by command \ztikz_hash_if_change_cs:n {<file-name>}.
• gnuplot: use gnuplot to generate plot data, tikz to plot to data generated by gnuplot. This is blazing fast when you plot some complex functions compare to the default tikz.
• python: call the external python to plot figure, do calculation. For example, Sympy can be used to calculate the integral or do some matrix operations in linear algebra.
• wolfram: use wolframscript to do calculations, include plotting figures.
• zdraw: this module provide some useful commands to draw a shaded object, a function. This module is implemented by l3draw, thus you don't need to load tikz for some simple plotting tasks, just load this module and play with it.

Each module can be loaded and used separately.Find out what you need and install the corresponding external program.

env config

Only wolframscript, gnuplot and python need additional settings. I'll simply introduc how to config this environments the following, for detailed instructions, please read the corresponding sections in the providing manuals.

[!CAUTION] All these modules is based on sed, for linux user, it is easy to handle. For windows users, you may need to using one of the ways: Cygwin, MSYS2, WSL or a package manager to install sed.

• For gnuplot setup:
  • in linux, you can use your package manager to install it. On windows, using scoop or chocolatey or Download the EXE in the official gnuplot site: gnuplot.
  • check if the gnuplot can been accessed in your shell.
  • compile your document turning shell escape on.
• For python setup:
  • install python first
  • using your package manager to install matplotlib and sympy
  • check installations, then all is done.
  • compile your document turning shell escape on.
• For wolframscript:
  • please see the official installations on wolframscript Installation
  • If you already have wolframscript setup in your windows, then you can create a soft link in WSL to make it works in your WSL:

    ln -sf "/mnt/c/Program Files/Wolfram Research/WolframScript/wolframscript.exe" /usr/bin/wolframscript
    

    pay attention to the wolframscript folder.

  • If wolframscript setup successfully, then everything is done.
  • compile your document turning shell escape on.

basic examples

A series of basic examples to test different modules in ztikz listed below:

1. gnuplot example:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{ztikz}
\ztikzLoadModule{gnuplot}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \Plot[-1.5*pi:2*pi]{sin(x)}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The output will be:

2. python example:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{ztikz}
\ztikzLoadModule{python}

\begin{document}
  \(\displaystyle\int x^8 + \cos(7x) + 6t\,\mathrm{d}x = \sympy{integrate( x**8 + cos(7*x) + 6*t, x )}\)
\end{document}

The output will be:

3. wolframscript example:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{ztikz}
\ztikzLoadModule{cache, wolfram}


\begin{document}
% call the wolframscript
\wolfram{Series[Exp[x], {x, 0, 5}]}

% import the result
\(\wolframResult\)
\end{document}

The fisrt time you compile it, there will be a log:

current hash is 637191695943FF88742EB181936998A6
current hash is unique --> recorded

that means ztikz has successfully generates the result and remeber this call (by the wolframscript file hash). the next time you compile it, there will be a log:

current hash is 637191695943FF88742EB181936998A6
skip recompile, using the cache wolframscript result 1

and this time is much faster than before. Only when you change this call args(Series[Exp[x], {x, 0, 5}]), the wolframscript will be called again.

The output will be:

4. cache example: see the above examples for wolframscript. We implement the first example about gnuplot with cache. The code will be:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{ztikz}
\ztikzLoadModule{cache, gnuplot}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \Plot[-1.5*pi:2*pi]{sin(x)}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

the second time you compile it, there will be a log:

===== Image 'ztikz_output/tikz_data/test-figure0' is up-to-date. ======

that means this time we use the cache result generated in the first time.

5. zdraw example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ztikz}
\ztikzLoadModule{zdraw}

\begin{document}
\begin{zdraw}
\zplot[
    domain={0, 0.02*\c_pi_fp, 2*\c_pi_fp}, 
    action=shade, startColor=blue,
    endColor=green, axis=x
]{sin(x)}
\end{zdraw}
\end{document}

The output will be:

For Advanced User

Compile manual

To compile the users' manuals of this bundle, switching to the module directory and use l3build doc to compile the corresponding manual. Building the ztikz manual from scratch will take a long time, be patient(in my computer, about 7 mins). For that there are so many tikz pictures and external programs called in the manual. The second time you compile it, it will be much faster(about 20s).

For better output, Set typesetruns = 3 to typeset this manual.

For zlatex, ztex_intro and ztool manual, it will be much faster than ztikz manual.

zlatex

In slide mode, zlatex uses these 3 basic commands:

\_zslide_status_bar:nnnn {<start point>}{<bar color Tag>}{<rule width>}{<rule height>}

\_slide_status_metadate:nnn {<head/foot>}{<start x-coor>}{<hbox width>}{<hbox content>}

\_slide_metadate:n {<bar tag>}

to create the status bar, status metadata box and status metadata. You can use these commands to create your slide own theme.

Maybe in the future, zlatex will provide a more interfaces to advanced users.

ztikz

In ztikz, the uniformal interface of external programs calling hasn't been implemented yet. They are still in separate modules. You still can the following commands to create your own commands:

gnuplot

\ztikz_gnu_data_plot_cs:nnn {<plot type>}{<plot style>}{<plot marker key-value list>}

This function will check the plot type and check the cache. Finaly it will the plot data generated by gnuplot.

wolframscript

\ztikz_wolfram_input_result_cs:

This command will automatically write and collects the contents in file \g__ztikz_mma_path_tl/mma_res_\int_use:N \g__mma_text_index_int.txt, where:

• \g__ztikz_mma_path_tl default set to './ztikz_output/mma_data/'
• \g__mma_text_index_int is the index of cache file, and push the content which is separated be comma (,) to variable \l__wolfram_temp_res_tl for further use.

After run this command, you can use the content using command \wolframResult, the implement of this command is:

% macro storage the mma-result
\NewDocumentCommand\wolframResult{O{raw}O{}}{
  \tl_if_eq:nnTF {#1}{raw}{
      \seq_use:Nnnn \l__wolfram_temp_res_seq {#2}{#2}{#2}
  }{
    \if_is_int:xTF {\int_eval:n {#1}}
      {\seq_item:Nn \l__wolfram_temp_res_seq {#1}}{}
  }
}

ztool

Preparing ...

Pull Request

Pre-requirements

This bundle uses l3build to run code testing. If you want to improve this project and Pull a Request after changing code in class, package or module, make sure to run the test and pass it before you commit your code.

[!TIP] Be cautious the checkruns variable when running the test for doc-XX-output, where XX represents article, book or slide. The last member need at least 3 run-times to pass the PDF-based test while the rest need 2 run-times.

manifest

Each module contains a Manifest that discripes:

• Source files
• Checking-specific support files
• Test files

of each module. To get the Manifest.md, Tips in l3doc.pdf:

In order for manifest to detect derived and typeset files, it should be run after running unpack and doc.

run test

By setting the variable modules in ./build.lua in root dir or change to the module dir.

1. Take ztool for an example, change directory to ztool module and run the following command:

l3build save ztool-cmd-ztool

2. Or set modules = {"ztool"} in ./build.lua and run the following command in root dir:

l3build save ztool-cmd-ztool

WELCOME TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS PROJECT !