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From the Readers

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For the table with footnotes (2007-2-asknelly), I'd like to draw your attention to my ctable package, which combines the properties of threeparttable, plus those of booktabs and more. It generates better typography, has many options, and is easier to use (at least in my opinion...). Here is the source for the example table (uncomment the width option to obtain better results).

Also see the pdf output for threeparttable and for ctable without and with the width option. The ctable documentation is also included.

Wybo Dekker
Dutch TeX Users Group
http://www.ntg.nl

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Sirs: I think it might be useful if you include the source code of all your articles. The pdf version, while instructive, would be much improved if the .tex file were included.

thanks
re-v

[We have included links to the source files for most all of the articles in this issue, and we plan to do this for all future articles where the authors give their permission. - The Editors]

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Hello. I enjoyed reading this essay (Making an Electronic Journal with web tools, Wiki, and version control by Paul Blaga). I would like to share a point of experience with you.

After using a Wiki, just like you, for the management of the project cycle (tasks allocation and status, etc.), I later learned that it is worthwhile to use the Wiki also for the essays themselves, eliminating the use of Subversion. Simply, the TeX documents themselves are loaded on the Wiki as Wiki pages, and the Wiki does the role of Subversion in collaborative editing, locking, differences viewing, versioning, etc.

There are a few advantages to this mode over using Subversion:

1. One less tool to learn and maintain.
2. A web interface which allows people to work on the essays without installing a client, and over port 80 using browsers that are available in every environment.
3. More intuitive and more user-friendly.

Of course, when viewing a TeX file on the Wiki it comes out only as raw text, but this is not an issue. After all, SVN does not produce a WYSIWYG experience either. It's the keeping of versions, locks and diffs that's important.

Regards,
Hagai Bar-El
Rehovot, Israel

[Paul Blaga replies:

First of all, thank you for your interest in our work.

I don't share entirely your opinion regarding the use of Subversion. I do think that Subversion does a better job in managing different versions of the repository than the Wiki, which was designed for a slightly different purpose.

There is another reason why, personally, I wouldn't give up using Subversion. Although our journal is entirely electronic, there are some principles of publishing that have to be observed in this framework. I have in mind, first of all, confidentiality. We receive many articles for publication. Some of them are refused, and others are published in a final form which is significantly different from the initial one. Therefore I think it's natural for the authors to expect that all the editorial process remain private, between them and the editors/reviewers.

In response to the third point, we have found Subversion easy to learn and use, especially when using a GUI client. ]

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Congratulations on bringing up this nice journal. In my opinon, the pdf format should be designed for screen reading using pdfscreen since it is an online journal, rather than A4 paper which is suitable for printout. If you wish you may like to have two pdf files, one for screen and the other for printing.

H.S.Rai

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Hi PracTeX Journal People,

There are a some errors on your website.

The LaTeX example given contains an error:
   \TPJrevision{year-mm-dd}
should be:
   \TPJrevision{year}{mm}{dd}

Also the manual http://tug.org/pracjourn/styles/latex/pracjourn.pdf lists the command with only one argument but in the .cls file the macro is clearly defined with three arguments. Please update your web site and documentation.

Best Regards,
Martin Scharrer

[Martin, Thanks for your excellent article in this issue, which you managed to write despite the errors in our journal style information. We have updated the web site and documentation. -The Editors]

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