[OS X TeX] Pesky TeXShop warnings

[Don Green Dragon]

Hello Michael,

>> <<snip>>

>> After each TYPESET the console window reveals somewhere of the order of 131 complaints or warnings or whatever they should be called. Not sure about the number 131, but I see these [1], [2], [3], ... , [130], [131] creatures scattered throughout the console window.
> Those numbers are page break markers.

Ok, thanks for that. 

<<snip>>
>> ----------
>> Overfull \hbox (30.0pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 17--19
>> [] |
>> ----------
>> 
>> Huh!? The actual source code is:
>> 
>> 16  \chapter[Theorems and Proofs]{\centering Theorems and Proofs}
>> 17  \rule{\textwidth}{4pt}
>> 18  \rule{\textwidth}{2pt}
>> 19  \par
>> 
>> Double Huh!? 
> No idea what's going on here, but somehow there's 30pt of nothing sticking out to the side.

"30pt of nothing sticking out" -- :-)  Well, I stumbled across what can be done to get rid of the "Overfull" complaint, namely:

>> 17  \rule{\textwidth}{4pt}\\
>> 18  \rule{\textwidth}{2pt}\\

but now the warning is: 

Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 16--18

Well, I prefer the underfull warning!  ;-)


>> Most of the complaints are "Overfull \hbox ..." or "Underfull \hbox ..." and I've pretty much given up on the 'Underfull' complaints because when looking at the source code, I can see no reasons for the claim.

> They're normally formed with hard enters (//). They can be safely ignored generally, as stuff is under the margins, not over it. You could replace // with \hspace*{\fill}{\quad} (I think that works - I'm not that far into my thesis yet)

Checking out many more of the Underfull warnings, I see that they are frequently related to an occurrence of \\. So that was a good observation. Thanks. 


>> I try to pay more attention to the 'Overfull' guys. Here is one that is beyond my ken:
>> 
>> The complaint --- maybe 'advice' is a better term  ;-) --- is (not including the ---------- guys)
>> 
>> ----------
>> Overfull \hbox (1.03319pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 1282--1283
>> []\T1/lmr/m/n/10.95 To com-plete the ta-ble above, three more re-duc-tions are 
>> nec-es-sary. Next, we might note |
>> ----------
>> 
>> and sure enough the line is marked with a fat vertical bar. Yet on viewing the line in the PDF window, the text
>> 
>> ----------
>> To com-plete the ta-ble above, three more re-duc-tions are nec-es-sary. Next, we might note
>> ----------
>> 
>> obviously fits within the left and right margins!
> It doesn't. It's 1.03319pt too wide. Which is almost nothing.

I agree that 1.03319pt is "almost nothing" but when one views the typeset text, the end of the line "we might note" is not even close to the right margin. Hence the "It's 1.03319pt too wide." appears to be silly!


>> The source lines in question are
>> 
>> 1281  \par
>> 1282  To complete the table above, three more reductions are necessary. Next, we might note 
>> 1283  \par
>> 
>> After this exercise, I've concluded that I should knot my knickers less tightly and be happy that TYPESET produces a PDF file that looks as I desire.

> That's good advice. Personally, I like to get rid of all such errors but I'm picky. :-)

On tracking down those Underfull warnings, I found, to my chagrin, too many cases wherein an occurrence of \\ was just plain silly.

Thanks for your help. Learned a few points again.  :-)


Don Green Dragon
fergdc at Shaw.ca