Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group

(with apologies to Charles Dickens, Robert Frost, and Dr. Seuss) "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, ..." (A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens). At the end of this part of my journey; it is time to reflect on how I got here, and what the future may hold. Looking back, I am here because of answering two simple questions.  One from a man who is no longer here, one from a man who still poses new and interesting questions.  Along the way, I've formed a few questions of my own. The first question was posed by my paternal uncle, Bertram Winston.  Uncle Bert was a classic type A personality.  Everything in his life was organi

With just a little abuse: "Which way did they go? How many were there? I must find my references; For I am their master." LaTeX references are wonderful things.  In this short epistle, we will explore some A sample page with reference problems. of the interesting things that you can do with them, problems that can arise from misusing them, problems that can arise from not using them, and finally how to spice them up just a little. First we will set up a conceptual model using based on the LaTeX file (Listing 1), the make file (Listing 2), and some auxiliary files that LaTeX creates.  Firstly, copy the LaTeX file and the make file to a convenient directory.  Create references.pdf from the command line, by executing make .  You want to get a sample PDF like in the image.  Now that we have something to look at, we can construct the conceptual model. Opening the references.aux and searching for the lines that begin with the \newlabel token, and comparing tha

To the great Margin Police: "You lay down rules for all that approach you, One and half on the left-hand edge, One on all the other edges, Page numbers one half down from the top. These are your words. And we are grateful for you guidance and direction. Lo, you lead us in the ways of professionalism and consistency. We, the unwashed are grateful." But I have one question: Why doesn't the LaTeX style file help me achieve these goals?? And so the exploration begins. Sometimes we use LaTeX to write and submit papers and reports for publication.  Often the publishers provide a style file for us to use that dictates things like margins, number of columns per page, headers, footers, and other formatting directives.  Other times, guidance comes from "instructions to authors" and we are expected and required to meet the requirements.  What follows below are how see what are the current margins, how to set the margins, and how to see if your docum