The xpicture package, version 1.2a (Several extensions of the "picture" standard environment, including graphs of functions and parametric curves) Robert Fuster, 2012/12/17 1. Licence ---------- This material is subject to the LaTeX Project Public License. See http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/licenses.lppl.html for the details of that license. 2. About this package --------------------- The xpicture package introduces several new graphical instructions, and some enriched versions of standard instructions used inside the picture environment that, among other utilities, will provide the possibility of using different reference systems and a fine control the precise position where the objects are placed in your drawing. But the most interesting feature of this package is the ability to draw high quality curves such that conic sections, graphs of elementary functions and parametric curves, from LaTeX and using the typical LaTeX syntax. The new instructions defined by this package can be classified as follows: -- Reference systems and coordinates: - Declaration and use of different reference systems, with Cartesian or polar coordinates. - Instructions to show Cartesian or polar reference systems. -- An alternative to the picture environment, compatible with the new reference systems. -- Alternative instructions or extensions of the standard picture commands and those defined by the packages pict2e and curve2e: - Enriched versions of marks \put and \multiput, providing an adequate control of the precise position in which objects are composed. - Instructions for drawing straight segments, vectors (in any direction and using any reference system), polygonal lines, and regular and arbitrary polygons. -- Regular curves: - Instructions for drawing conic sections (circles, ellipses, hyperbolas and parabolas) and arcs of these curves. - Instructions to graph functions and parametrically defined curves. This package requires the "calculator" and "calculus" packages. You can download these packages from CTAN: /macros/latex/contrib/calculator Packages "pict2e", "curve2e" and "xcolor" are also needed. These packages are included in major TeX distributions. 3. Installation and documentation --------------------------------- After uncompressing "xpicture.zip" you will have the following files: -- "README". This file. -- "xpicture.dtx". The source file. -- "xpicture-doc.pdf". The compiled "xpicture" user manual. -- "xpicture-doc.tex". The user manual source file. -- "xpicture.tds.zip". Ready to use tds-structures zip file. Then, you can install the package in two ways: a) Unpacking the zip file xpicture.tds.zip into your local texmf tree and updating the file database, or b) By compiling the source file "xpicture.dtx" in the following sequence >> pdflatex xpicture.dtx >> pdflatex xpicture.dtx >> makeindex -s gind.ist -o xpicture.ind xpicture.idx >> pdflatex xpicture.dtx Then, several files will be generated: "xpicture.sty" (the package). Move this file where LaTeX search for (typically, in a local texmf tree, at tex/latex/xpicture/) and refresh the file database. "xpicture.pdf" (documented source and reference manual). "xpicture.cfgxmpl" (costumizable local configuration file). Recall that the user manual is not "xpicture.pdf", but "xpicture-doc.pdf". If you re-compile this file, many small files, named "xpictureNN.tex" are generated. These files contain the source code of all examples included in the manual. You can store or discard this files. Please, visit the "xpicture" homepage at http://www.upv.es/~rfuster/xpicture --------------------------------------------------- Robert Fuster rfuster@mat.upv.es Universitat Polit\`ecnica de Val\`encia, 2012/12/17 ---------------------------------------------------