sbllatex-drivers team mailing list archive

[David Purton <dcpurton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Robert and Welcome!

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:37:19PM -0400, Robert Fischer wrote:
> Hey there.  David just signed me up, so I'm dropping a line about a few
> improvements I'd like to make.
> 
> 1) I'd like to change to using \DeclareOptions, \ExecuteOptions, and
> \ProcessOptions for the paper size instead of passing it directly into the
> article class.  Since I'm in the US and we refuse to do anything like the
> rest of the universe, I'm using US letter instead of A4, but the current way
> the class is coded up doesn't let me override the a4paper setting.  On this
> note: does geometry not pick up the paper setting automatically?  If not,
> that's fine, because I can pass it in with \geometry{a4paper}, but still,
> that's annoying.

No probs with that one, so long as you leave a4 as the default :) I'd
assume that geometry picks up what is already set

> 2) I'd like to create an inline form of the "hebrew" environment, which I've
> been calling \heb.  Anyone have a better name for that, or does that
> functionality already exist under a name and I just don't know it?

I think the \he{} and \gr{} macros will do what you want.

Try this: 

    In beginning \he{בראשית} \gr{ἐν ἀρχη}. And back to English.

> 3) I'd like to move the tetragrammaton command (as \tetra) into sbllang.sty.
>  As an OT guy who hangs out with a lot of Jews, I just feel weird typing it
> out and seeing it on my page.

No probs. Perhaps we could add an \ifheb check so that it would just
work whether it was placed in a hebrew environment or not.

> 4) Since the Hebrew and Greek language stuff requires the SBL Hebrew and SBL
> Greek fonts to be installed, we may want to break them out and allow people
> to opt out of loading them (nohebrew, nogreek options).  I've got a friend
> who was trying to use the system but it all fell down when the fonts weren't
> on her computer.

No probs. BTW I mostly use LaTeX, not XeTeX unless I have to. I'd like
to keep as much as possible working with both, but perhaps don't worry
on this occasion. If I'm feeling keen I'll make it LaTeX obey the
options too (but don't let me stop you from doing so)

> 5) If someone can show me how to get smallcaps to work, I'd like to bring in
> the smallcaps "Lord" and Bible abbreviation commands (e.g.
> \bibleabbrv{NRSV}).

Groan. This is less easy than it seems. With Times New Roman, you are
reduced to using fake small caps. So far we have not succeeded in
finding a way whether the selected font has a small caps variant or not.

Because I use LaTeX and the Computer Modern fonts, I just use \textsc{}.
In an ideal world, you would want to override this macro. Check if XeTeX
is being used, check if the current font has a small caps variant, and
use it if it does, otherwise fake them. I haven't tried yet, but maybe
one of the gurus on comp.text.tex or the XeTeX mailing list would know
how to tell if the current font has a small caps variant.

> 5b) If we get the Bible abbreviations to work, I'd probably create another
> package to do the Bible version citing logic.

Agreed.

> 6) I'd like to create a 'dukedivessay' class for Duke Divinity School (where
> I attend).  Since 'ridleyessay' is up there, I'm assuming it's okay to drop
> that in the SVN, too.

Go for it.

> 7) More than anything else, I'd like to start generating some documentation
> for all this stuff.  Is there any objection to using DocTeX?  I've requested
> the "LaTeX Companion", so hopefully I can figure that out and go nuts once
> I'm on the other side of finals.

Oooo. Yes please :).

the sample files in the test directory are useful, but no where near
enough. There is a little bit more info at
http://marshwiggle.net/ridleylatex/


David

-- 
David Purton
dcpurton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to
strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
                                 2 Chronicles 16:9a

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