CTAN update: ncctools
Jim Hefferon
ftpmaint at alan.smcvt.edu
Mon Feb 4 15:10:12 CET 2002
The ncctools package has been updated at tug.ctan.org and should
have made its way throught the mirroring process.
Jim Hefferon
ftpmaint at tug.ctan.org
================================================
The following information was provided by our fellow contributor.
Name of contribution: ncctools
Author's name: Alexander I Rozhenko
Location on CTAN: macros/latex/contrib/supported/ncctools
Summary description: A new release of the NCCTOOLS bungle for LaTeX Project
License type: lppl
Announcement text given by the contribution's author:
- -------------------------------------------------------------------
%
% NCCTOOLS, Release 2.0
%======================
%
% HISTORICAL NOTES
% ================
The `ncctools' bundle consists of a number of packages extracted from
NCC style (developed by A. Rozhenko in 1992-1996 for LaTeX-2.09) while
reimplementation it for LaTeX-2e. This job is not completed yet. So,
some packages will be added to the bundle later.
Four of the packages, namely dcounter, extdash, manyfoot, and nccfoots,
are documented in corresponding `.dtx' files. Others are partially
documented just inside `.sty' files.
%
% CONTENTS OF THE NCCTOOLS BUNDLE
% ===============================
cropbox.sty Implements the \cropbox command which prepares a box with
crop marks at its corners looking like angles. Angle
parameters are customizable.
cropmark.sty Implements the \cropmark command producing crop box
around page text area (header area, footer area and
marginal notes are optionally taken into consideration).
The \cropmark command is used inside \watermark
commands. It accurately interprets current state of
two-column, two-side, and reverse-margin modes.
dcounter.dtx Dynamic counters. The counter declared as dynamic
is really created at the first use and receives at that
moment the count style which was established by the
\countstyle command. The special use of \counstyle command
with optional parameter allows modifying of
subordination of existing counter. For example, while
using the book class you can reject the subordination of
the section counter to the chapter counter and
resubordinate figures, tables and equations to sections.
desclist.sty Implements the desclist environment. It is considered
as an improvement of the description environment.
The appearance of item markers is easy customizable on the
fly. An optional parameter allows set a marker prototype
for calculation of hang indentation skip. The description
environment is redefined to use an optional parameter also.
extdash.dtx The package implements the commands, \Hyphdash, \Endash,
\Emdash, and their *-forms, to control hyphenation of
compound words and ordinary words dashed by em-dash. You
can also use the shortcuts
\-/ \=/ \-- \== \--- \===
instead. On contrary to germanb style of the Babel package
no active symbols added. You can also decrease the length
of em-dash by the option `cyremdash' to satisfy the russian
typesetting rules.
manyfoot.dtx The package implements a command, \newfootnote, that adds
footnote levels to the standard LaTeX's footnote
mechanism. Footnotes of every additional level are
automatically grouped together on a LaTeX-2e output page
and are separated from another levels by the special
vertical space and (maybe) rule. You can customize the
typesetting style of additional footnotes choosing between
ordinary footnotes and run-in paragraph footnotes (useful
for critical editions).
nccbbb.sty Implementation of poor Black Board Bold symbols. Ported
from old NCC-LaTeX. It is useless in modern LaTeX but
kept just in case.
nccboxes.sty Additional boxes from NCC-LaTeX. The \jhbox and \jvbox can
horizontally and vertically align a body with respect
to a prototype. The \addbox adjusts the height and
depth of the box body (it is alternative to using the `calc'
package). The \pbox is a simple version of one-column
table. It is independent on \arraystretch value. The \cbox
is intended for design of fancy headers in tables.
nccfancyhdr.sty Absolutely new implementation of functionality of the
fancyhdr package. It is more transparent, simple,
non-aggressive (redefining of standard page styles is
optional), and bug-free (I hope :). Header width control
is improved with two commands, namely \extendedheaders
(extended upon marginal notes) and \normalheaders. The
command \thispagestyle correctly works with fancy
page styles (in fancyhdr, it didn't work because of use
of global definitions).
nccfoots.dtx The package implements commands for generating footnotes
with manual marks. For example, to mark footnote by star you
can write \Footnote{*}{Footnote text}.
nccmath.sty Extension of the `amsmath' package. Its main aim is to
combine AMS's typesetting of display equations and
NCC-LaTeX's one. In amsmath, the `eqnarray' environment
leaves unchanged. This package redefines `eqnarray' to allow
using of amsmath tag control features and display breaks.
Intercolumn distance is reduced to the distance typical
for relation operations. All columns are prepared in the
\displaystyle. A new `darray' environment is a mix of the
AMS's `aligned' environment and LaTeX's `array' environment.
It is typed out in the same way as `aligned' environment
but has columns definition parameter as `array' environment.
The use of column specifications is restricted to the
necessary commands only: l,c,r,@, and * are allowed. The
implementation is compatible with the array package. Some
additional commands are introduced also.
nccpic.sty Envelop for the `graphicx' package. It customizes graphics
extensions list for most popular drivers, namely dvips,
dvidpf, and dvipdfm, and for use with pdftex also. Extension
list now contains extensions of graphics files which are
processed on the fly without additional efforts. Using this
feature simplifies typesetting. You need not specify a
graphics file extension when use the \includegraphics
command. Depending on a dvi driver specified, a graphics
file with an appropriate extension is searched. So, you
only need to create a number of versions of a graphics file
in different formats (for example, `.bmp' for dvips or Yap
and `.png' for pdftex). After that you can produce resulting
`.ps' and `.pdf' file without any changes in the source file.
The recommended storage for graphics files is the graphics/
subdirectory of the directory the `.tex' file is translated.
Some additional commands are introduced also.
nccsect.sty Extension of LaTeX's section, caption, and toc-entries
generation technique. The package contains many
improvements. More interesting of them are:
* simple declaring of sections of any level (including
sections of 0th level and captions for floats);
* user-controlled typeout for display sections
(user can select one of the following typeout styles:
hangindent, parindent, center);
* customizing of section or caption tag by the manner
similar to AMS equation tag;
* simple declaring of toc-entries using prototypes
for calculation of hang indentations;
* \numberline command newer overlaps the text going after;
* \PnumPrototype{} is used for calculation of right margin
in table of contents;
* different captions for different float types;
* simple handle of new types of floats (after registration
of a new float in the package you can declare a caption
and toc-entry for it; be sure that the \chapter command
will automatically produce a vertical skip in a toc for
the new float also).
nccthm.sty Yet another extension to the \newtheorem command. Four
orthogonal properties of theorems are used:
numbering mode - standard or APAR (a number before header);
theorem type - defines an appearance of a theorem (what fonts
are used for header, comment, and body). The
`theorem' and `remark' types a predefined;
indent style - margin, nomargin, indent, noindent (selected in
package options);
break mode - do break after header or not? Hardcoded when a
new theorem is declared. Can be overridden on
the fly for concrete math statement.
Easy customization of spacing and commands inserted after
headers. Two types of QED symbol (white and black). The
\proof command is introduced. The \newtheoremtype command
allows create new theorem types. The \likeTYPE command
is automatically created for every new type. It simplifies
typeout of rare math statements. Instead of creation of a new
theorem environment you can use
\liketheorem{Header}{Number}[Comment]
for it, or \likeremark, or ... Every theorem environment
and theorem type can be redefined with \renewtheorem and
\renewtheoremtype. Counters of all theorem-like environments
are dynamic. So, they are created at the first use. This is
very helpful for package writer. A number of theorem-like
environments can be created in a package or class, and a user
only selects the count style for them (in simple case this can
be done with only one \countstyle command in the document
preamble).
parskip.sty Useful for documents with non-zero skips between paragraphs.
In this case, the additional vertical space inserted by lists
is unlikely. The package provides identical distance between
all paragraphs except section markups. It redefines control
list commands and suppress \topskip, \partopskip, and \itemsep
in lists. As a result, the distance between ordinary paragraphs
and paragraphs prepared by lists is the same. The command
\SetParskip{distance} is described to control this distance.
tocenter.sty Provides two commands, namely \ToCenter and \FromMargins, which
simplify the customization of page layout. It is now easy
to change text width and height and center the text area
on the page (the header, footer, and marginal note fields
are optionally taken into consideration). Other way is
like-Word declaring of paper layout: you set margins
from the left, right, top, and bottom.
watermark.sty Provides watermarks on output pages. A watermark is
some text or picture printed at the background of paper.
A watermark is usually stored in the page header. This way is
inconvenient: it needs redefinition of page style commands.
We use another method that is orthogonal to page mark
commands and needs no redefinition of page marks.
The left and right watermarks are allowed. Temporary
\thiswatermark acts on the current page only. Using this
way it is easy to substitute a page header by your own page
header with the \thispageheading command.
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