{"id":129,"date":"2010-08-26T12:37:05","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T07:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvr.cc\/?p=129"},"modified":"2010-08-26T12:37:05","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T07:07:05","slug":"write-registers-in-tex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cvr.cc\/?p=129","title":{"rendered":"Write registers in TeX"},"content":{"rendered":"

The io<\/code> registers in Te<\/span>X 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 Te<\/span>X compilations. La<\/small><\/span>Te<\/span>X 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<\/code> 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<\/code>, is written to solve this nagging problem.<\/p>\n

The theory<\/h4>\n

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<\/a> and as provided in his package, ProTex.sty<\/code> which is part of any standard Te<\/span>X distribution. This written out file is further processed by Te<\/span>X with the help of ProTex.sty<\/code> to segregate all information and collect in separate files for our final usage.<\/p>\n

The implementation<\/h4>\n

The process involves the following stages:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Mark-up all strings to be written out with special tags. <\/li>\n
  2. Run La<\/small><\/span>Te<\/span>X in the usual way which will generate jobname‑write.tex<\/code> along with other auxiliary files.<\/li>\n
  3. Typeset jobname‑write.tex<\/code> with La<\/small><\/span>Te<\/span>X, this will result in several output files as you would expect.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    New functions<\/h4>\n