(decorule LaTeX package)

decorule

This is the README.md file for the decorule LaTeX package v0.7 (2020-04-01) generated by ClassPack v.1.19 (2020-05-19) on 21 May 2020 at 11:04:52

Summary

This package implements a decorative swelled rule using only a symbol from a font installed with all distributions of TeX, so it works independently, without the need to install any additional software or fonts.

This is the packaged version of the macro which was originally published in the “Typographers' Inn” column in TUGboat (Flynn, 2010).

Automated installation

If this package is distributed from CTAN, it should be in a zip file which allows it to be installed automatically by the TeX Live Manager (tlmgr) and similar automated installers.

If you are using automated LaTeX package installation, no further action is required: the package will be installed the first time you use it in a LaTeX document.

If you are using the TeX Live Manager (tlmgr) program manually, you can install this package with the command:

$ tlmgr install decorule

TDS installation

This package is also available as a TeX Directory System (TDS) zip file (.tds.zip). This is the standard directory layout for a modern TeX installation which enables the package to be unzipped directly into your Personal TeX Directory without the need to use tlmgr. If you haven’t yet created a Personal TeX Directory, see below for details of what one is, and how to create it.

• You can install this package on any TDS-compliant personal system

(laptop, desktop, workstation, table, smartphone, PDA, etc) by unzipping it straight into your Personal TeX Directory. This will put all the files into the right places, so you can start using them immediately.

• On a shared (multiuser) system like a server, the administrator can

unzip it into the $TEXMFLOCAL directory instead (see below), and run your TeX directory-indexing program (eg texhash, mktexlsr, etc) so that everyone can use it.

• If you are using an old non-TDS-compliant system, see below under Manual

Installation.

Your Personal TeX Directory

This is a directory (folder) where you should put all local manual modifications (updates, additions such as new or updated classes, packages, and fonts) that are not handled automatically by tlmgr. The name and location are fixed (for all practical purposes):

• Apple Mac OS X

~/Library/texmf

• Unix and GNU/Linux

~/texmf

• MS-Windows 95/XP/NT

C:\texmf

• MS-Windows 2007 and above

Computer\System\YOURNAME\texmf

Create that folder now if it does not already exist. Put (or unzip) all additions to your system that are not handled by tlmgr into this directory, following exactly the subdirectory structure that is used in your main TeX distribution (unzipping a TDS file does this for you). This is what enables LaTeX to find stuff automatically.

If you are a Windows user running MiKTeX

When you create the folder for your Personal TeX Directory, you MUST add it to MiKTeX ’s list of supported folders. Run the MiKTeX Maintenance/Settings program, select the Roots tab, and add the folder. You only have to do this once.

Each time you add or remove software in your Personal TeX Directory, you MUST then click on the Update FNDB button in the General tab of the MiKTeX Maintenance/Settings program, otherwise MiKTeX will not find them and nothing will work!

Unix (Mac and GNU/Linux) users do not need to (indeed, should not) run their filename database indexer program (mktexlsr or texhash) for files put into a personal TeX directory.

Installation on shared systems

On multi-user systems (Unix-based), identify the shared local directory tree with the command

kpsewhich -expand-var '$TEXMFLOCAL'

This will give you the location of the shared texmf directory into which you must unzip these files.

Do not forget to run your local TeX filename database indexer program (texhash or mktexlsr) after installation, otherwise the files will not be found by LaTeX and nothing will work!

Manual installation (non-TDS systems)

To install this software manually, download and unzip the non-TDS zip file into a temporary directory and move the class and/or package files and other files to the proper locations where LaTeX will find them on your system. This is referred to in some documentation as “the TEXINPUTS directory”, although it may be called something else on your system.

It is your responsibility to know where this location is. See the question in the TeX FAQ at https://texfaq.org/FAQ-inst-wlcf.html for more information. If you do not know, or cannot find it, or do not have access to it, your TeX system may be out of date and may need replacing.

Online systems and “last resort” systems

Some online LaTeX systems use CTAN, so a package from there should be available on demand. For other online LaTeX systems where you do not have access to the file system, unzip the non-TDS zip file into a temporary directory and upload the files to the online system. Follow their instructions for where to put them.

In an emergency, or as a last resort on unmanageable systems, it is possible simply to put the class and/or package files into your current working directory (the same folder as your .tex files).

While this may work, it is not supported, and may lead to other resources (packages, fonts, images etc) not being found.

Usage

Include the line shown below in the Preamble of your LaTeX document; a \documentclass line should be at the top; a \usepackage command normally goes anywhere in the Preamble:

\usepackage[options]{decorule}

(similarly for other classes or packages if more than one is supplied with this package). Read the documentation for the options available, if any. The documentation is distributed as a PDF document in the zip file. You can also regenerate it by typesetting the decorule.dtx file with pdflatex (and biber and makeindex) in the normal way.

Bugs and TODO

No outstanding reported bugs at the time of this version.

For TODO items, see the PDF documentation.

Copyright

The following statement is included in the source code:

 Transformed from decorule.xml by ClassPack db2dtx.xsl
 version 1.19 (2020-05-19) on Thursday 21 May 2020 at 11:04:52

 decorule.sty is copyright © 2010-2020 by Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>

 This work may be distributed and/or modified under the
 conditions of the LaTeX Project Public License, either
 version 1.3 of this license or (at your option) any later
 version. The latest version of this license is in:

     http://www.latex-project.org/lppl.txt

 and version 1.3 or later is part of all distributions of
 LaTeX version 2005/12/01 or later.

 This work has the LPPL maintenance status ‘maintained’.
 
 The current maintainer of this work is Peter Flynn <peter@silmaril.ie>

 This work consists of the files decorule.dtx and decorule.ins,
 the derived file , 
 and any other ancillary files listed in the MANIFEST.