Write registers in TeX

The io registers in TeX are often a matter of severe limitation. When we try to typeset a document that loads a lot of packages, it becomes a non-trivial task to satisfy register requirements of various packages that compete each other. It is further complicated, if refining the typeset copy involves usage of more custom packages which want to write out a few streams for reading during subsequent TeX compilations. LaTeX needs a few registers by default, some of the packages might need a few more streams thereby reducing the available number of registers to less than ten. At times, we have been forced to comment out a few write registers which are seemingly unused for the document in question to make available necessary registers for our custom packages. But, this is not an elegant way, also, it requires developer intervention during the production process. A package namely, rvwrite.sty, is written to solve this nagging problem.

The theory

We make use of only one register to write out all our streams, meaning, all the items of information will be written to one file with necessary mark-up and delimiters to separate at a later stage. The final separation and write out process depends on the literate programming method invented by Eitan Gurari and as provided in his package, ProTex.sty which is part of any standard TeX distribution. This written out file is further processed by TeX with the help of ProTex.sty to segregate all information and collect in separate files for our final usage.

The implementation

The process involves the following stages:

1. Mark-up all strings to be written out with special tags.
2. Run LaTeX in the usual way which will generate jobname‑write.tex along with other auxiliary files.
3. Typeset jobname‑write.tex with LaTeX, this will result in several output files as you would expect.

New functions

• \newrvwrite — Every new stream has to be initialized with this function. eg.,

     \newrvwrite{mex}
  

  This will facilitate a new auxiliary stream, \jobname‑mex.tex.

• \rvwrite — Macro to mark-up strings meant for writing out. This has two arguments, first being the file type and the second the strings. eg.,

     \rvwrite{mex}{$\beta$}
  

  will write $\beta$ to \jobname‑mex.tex without expanding any of the strings even if control sequence.

• \ervwrite — Macro to mark-up strings that contain TeX control sequences which need to be expanded before writing. eg.,

     \ervwrite{mex}{Section: \thesection}
  

  will write the contents after expanding thesection to the corresponding counter number.

Usage

Package can be loaded with the following command:

 \usepackage{rvwrite}

There are no extra options for the package, nor is there any specific sequence for loading, it can be loaded anywhere in the preamble.

As explained in the previous section, to define a new output stream, \newrvwrite shall be used, the usage is provided below:

 \newrvwrite{info} 

This command will finally result in a file, \jobname‑info.tex which may be used as such or renamed to suit user’s requirements. Each stream may be initialized with \newrvwrite macros to facilitate safe writing of output at the end of the process. Even if you miss to initialize, the first instance of writing will trigger initialization, but it will be more safer to initialize the stream in the beginning.

Source files

Given below is the source of a test file, test.tex for favor of your testing:

  \documentclass[a4paper]{article}
   \usepackage{pxfonts}
   \usepackage{rvwrite}
   \usepackage{lipsum}

  \begin{document}

   \lipsum[1]
   \newrvwrite{info}
   \ervwrite{info}{\dlrchr\string\gamma\dlrchr}
   \rvwrite{info}{$beta$}
   \ervwrite{info}{JOB: \jobname-thepage}

   \newrvwrite{tbl}
   \ervwrite{tbl}{\string\def\string\thetable{9}}
   \rvwrite{tbl}{{\itshape Indian TeX Users Group}}
   \rvwrite{tbl}{LaTeX is a macro package written in TeX language}
   \lipsum[2]

  \end{document}

Composite stream

The verbatim source of the composite stream written to test‑write.tex is given below:

  \documentclass{article}
   \input ProTex.sty
   \AlProTex{tex,<<<>>>,list,title,|,[]}
   \begin{document}
 
   <test-info><<<
   $\gamma$
   >>>
   <test-info><<<
   $beta$
   >>>
   <test-info><<<
   JOB: test-1
   >>>
   <test-tbl><<<
   \def\thetable{9}
   >>>
   <test-tbl><<<
   {\itshape Indian TeX Users Group}
   >>>
   <test-tbl><<<
   LaTeX is a macro package written in TeX language
   >>>
  \OutputCode<test-info>
  \OutputCode<test-tbl>
 
  \end{document}

Various output files

Two files will be created (1) test‑info.tex and (2) test‑tbl.tex, the sources are provided below:

test-info.tex

  $\gamma$
  $\beta$
  JOB: test-1

 

test-tbl.tex

  \def\thetable{9}
  {\itshape Indian TeX Users Group}
  LaTeX is a macro package written in TeX language

Download

The package, documentation and test files can be downloaded from the URL: http://download.river-valley.com/cvr/rvwrite.tar.gz. Bugs, suggestions and feature requests may be posted here. I can be reached at cvr@river-valley.org.