| Author |
Message |
Markis Landis Gardner
Guest
|
 Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:57 am Post subject:
Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
I am trying to write my first paper (I am a Master's Student who hopes to
become a PhD student). The problem is with the graphics. I am trying to
draw an Omega Network with 32 inputs and 32 outputs (even 16 X 16 would be
good). I have tried paint, but not very professional. I was told you could
do it in Word and Excel, but person telling me that couldn't figure it out.
Then someone said Microsoft Visio, but they couldn't find the right
diagrams.
I want to label the inputs and outputs.
Is there anything you can suggest? Remember I am a student so I can't
afford expensive software.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Thanks,
Markis |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Torben Ćgidius Mogensen
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:30 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
"Markis Landis Gardner" <spam@bellsouth.net> writes:
| Quote: | I am trying to write my first paper (I am a Master's Student who hopes to
become a PhD student). The problem is with the graphics. I am trying to
draw an Omega Network with 32 inputs and 32 outputs (even 16 X 16 would be
good). I have tried paint, but not very professional. I was told you could
do it in Word and Excel, but person telling me that couldn't figure it out.
Then someone said Microsoft Visio, but they couldn't find the right
diagrams.
I want to label the inputs and outputs.
Is there anything you can suggest? Remember I am a student so I can't
afford expensive software.
|
One option is MetaPost
(http://cm.bell-labs.com/who/hobby/MetaPost.html). Completely free,
can produce PostScript (which can be converted to PDF using ps2pdf).
Very good control over positioning. No GUI, though.
Torben |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bernd Paysan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:02 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Markis Landis Gardner wrote:
| Quote: | I am trying to write my first paper (I am a Master's Student who hopes to
become a PhD student). The problem is with the graphics. I am trying to
draw an Omega Network with 32 inputs and 32 outputs (even 16 X 16 would be
good). I have tried paint, but not very professional. I was told you
could do it in Word and Excel, but person telling me that couldn't figure
it out. Then someone said Microsoft Visio, but they couldn't find the
right diagrams.
I want to label the inputs and outputs.
Is there anything you can suggest? Remember I am a student so I can't
afford expensive software.
|
I'd use xfig. It comes with Linux, costs nothing, and is created exactly for
that purpose (not just omega networks, but all kind of block diagrams). I'd
also suggest to ditch MS Word as tool to write your PhD thesis, and learn
LaTeX (or if you want more visual control, LyX or TeXmacs). You may curse
about this suggestion for the first week, but with MS Word, you'll curse in
the last week, which is much worse ;-). All tools above are free software,
so perfectly suited for a student's budget. You might even find another
student who lends you the installing DVD, and unlike the comrades who give
your their M$ Office CDs, this is legal.
--
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
TOUATI Sid
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:13 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Since you are writing your first paper, I suggest you to first learn
latex instead of word and excel.
For the omega network,did you try some graph drawing tool (VCG, LEDA,
etc.). Some placement algorithms are implemented that allow to draw a
graph (typically an omega network).
S |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ketil Malde
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:26 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> writes:
| Quote: | I'd use xfig. It comes with Linux, costs nothing, and is created exactly for
that purpose
|
While I've used xfig, I'd also suggest Inkscape, which (finally!)
seems to provde a working tool with a more "normal" (not necessarily
better) interface than xfig.
| Quote: | You might even find another student who lends you the installing
DVD, and unlike the comrades who give your their M$ Office CDs, this
is legal.
|
Or you could get a live-CD distribution, like Ubuntu, so you can try
it before you install.
-kzm
--
If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jan Vorbrüggen
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 3:45 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
| Quote: | I'd
also suggest to ditch MS Word as tool to write your PhD thesis, and learn
LaTeX (or if you want more visual control, LyX or TeXmacs). You may curse
about this suggestion for the first week, but with MS Word, you'll curse in
the last week, which is much worse ;-).
|
Strongly seconded. For longer documents, MS Word is a source of endless
frustration, including at least in some cases total loss of data.
Jan |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
David
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 4:21 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:26:01 +0100, Ketil Malde wrote:
| Quote: | Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> writes:
I'd use xfig. It comes with Linux, costs nothing, and is created exactly for
that purpose
While I've used xfig, I'd also suggest Inkscape, which (finally!)
seems to provde a working tool with a more "normal" (not necessarily
better) interface than xfig.
You might even find another student who lends you the installing
DVD, and unlike the comrades who give your their M$ Office CDs, this
is legal.
Or you could get a live-CD distribution, like Ubuntu, so you can try
it before you install.
-kzm
|
Since the original question mentioned MS Word, it's reasonable to assume
the guy has windows, so it's worth pointing out that all of the suggested
tools are cross-platform (although some, like LyX, are a bit of a pain on
windows). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Del Cecchi
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:15 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
David wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:26:01 +0100, Ketil Malde wrote:
Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> writes:
I'd use xfig. It comes with Linux, costs nothing, and is created exactly for
that purpose
While I've used xfig, I'd also suggest Inkscape, which (finally!)
seems to provde a working tool with a more "normal" (not necessarily
better) interface than xfig.
You might even find another student who lends you the installing
DVD, and unlike the comrades who give your their M$ Office CDs, this
is legal.
Or you could get a live-CD distribution, like Ubuntu, so you can try
it before you install.
-kzm
Since the original question mentioned MS Word, it's reasonable to assume
the guy has windows, so it's worth pointing out that all of the suggested
tools are cross-platform (although some, like LyX, are a bit of a pain on
windows).
I would use Framemaker. It would get the job done, relatively minor |
learning curve. It is used by some standards organizations.
del cecchi |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bernd Paysan
Guest
|
| Posted:
Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:29 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Del Cecchi wrote:
| Quote: | I would use Framemaker. It would get the job done, relatively minor
learning curve. It is used by some standards organizations.
|
.... but it's not within the student's budget.
Standards organizations: the IEEE uses LaTeX (and Word for the dummies - but
what do the dummies do at IEEE? ;-).
--
Bernd Paysan
"If you want it done right, you have to do it yourself"
http://www.jwdt.com/~paysan/ |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
israel
Guest
|
| Posted:
Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Jan Vorbrüggen <jvorbrueggen-not@mediasec.de> writes:
| Quote: | Strongly seconded. For longer documents, MS Word is a source of endless
frustration, including at least in some cases total loss of data.
|
I use Latex for small to medium sized reports .
These have generally been requested from me by solicitors, insurance companies
and various agencies.
Using auctex + xemacs to compose the latex makes it nearly effortless. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stefan Monnier
Guest
|
| Posted:
Tue Feb 22, 2005 8:48 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
| Quote: | I'd also suggest to ditch MS Word as tool to write your PhD thesis, and
learn LaTeX (or if you want more visual control, LyX or TeXmacs). You may
curse about this suggestion for the first week, but with MS Word, you'll
curse in the last week, which is much worse ;-).
Strongly seconded. For longer documents, MS Word is a source of endless
frustration, including at least in some cases total loss of data.
|
The lack of any kind of bibtex-like management is a killer in a PhD thesis.
Stefan |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Jeremy Linton
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:56 am Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
There are a lot of TeX bigots in this newsgroup, propagating the
standard myths about LaTeX and layout/word processing tools that haven't
been true for 10+ years. M$ Word will work just fine, you will have to
spend an hour or so learning how to make it sing, before you start your
thesis. This is about 1/10 as long as TeX, which in my opinion is time
better spent actually doing the thesis. Get a good book on Word or spend
10 minutes searching the web and read some of the tutorials. I found
this one right away with google.
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/ew/thesis/Thesis_word.html
As far as the part about big word documents... I haven't had that
problem in a few years. My wife wrote her thesis in word and it had 800+
megs of graphics (if I remember correctly). I've actually been opening
trace logs at work using word because emacs chokes after a few gigs of
text and says the file is to big, and vim just seems to hang.
Stefan Monnier wrote:
| Quote: | I'd also suggest to ditch MS Word as tool to write your PhD thesis, and
learn LaTeX (or if you want more visual control, LyX or TeXmacs). You may
curse about this suggestion for the first week, but with MS Word, you'll
curse in the last week, which is much worse ;-).
Strongly seconded. For longer documents, MS Word is a source of endless
frustration, including at least in some cases total loss of data.
The lack of any kind of bibtex-like management is a killer in a PhD thesis.
Stefan |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Greg Lindahl
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:56 am Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
In article <yWTSd.36366$Bx5.32441@fe1.texas.rr.com>,
Jeremy Linton <replytothelist@nospam.com> wrote:
| Quote: | This is about 1/10 as long as TeX, which in my opinion is time
better spent actually doing the thesis.
|
I recommend everyone use Visual Basic to develop programs, because it
takes 1/10 as long to start programming.
Actually, the CS community as a whole isn't nearly as TeX-fanatic as
physics and astronomy. Go figure. Not a topic for comp.arch.
-- greg (astronomer) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:56 am Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
Jeremy Linton <replytothelist@nospam.com> wrote:
| Quote: | There are a lot of TeX bigots in this newsgroup, propagating the
standard myths about LaTeX and layout/word processing tools that haven't
been true for 10+ years. M$ Word will work just fine, you will have to
spend an hour or so learning how to make it sing, before you start your
thesis. This is about 1/10 as long as TeX, which in my opinion is time
better spent actually doing the thesis. Get a good book on Word or spend
10 minutes searching the web and read some of the tutorials. I found
this one right away with google.
|
Gack. I've spent a lot of time writing technical documents in Word
over the past few years, and have to agree with the comments that it
is endlessly frustrating. Major flaws include:
-- poor equation editing/formatting.
-- no way to enforce consistent formatting. Yes you can use styles,
and if you're diligent, they work ok. But if you collaborate with
anyone else, you'll find that 99% of the world doesn't know styles
exist, and just uses ad hoc formatting.
-- with fairly complex documents, about once a month I'll have a
screw-up where Word locks up while saving something, so the saved
document is corrupted and unrecoverable.
-- change tracking/merging is poor; Word tries to be too clever and do
everything with no user intervention required or possible. When
changes include reformatting, the style directory seems to always
get goofed up.
Since some of these are "features", they'll never be fixed.
I did my PhD in Frame, and did like that. They had a good deal for
students at the time.
-- Dave |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
David
Guest
|
| Posted:
Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:38 pm Post subject:
Re: Trying to write paper - need help with graphics. |
|
|
On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 04:48:30 +0000, Jeremy Linton wrote:
| Quote: | There are a lot of TeX bigots in this newsgroup, propagating the
standard myths about LaTeX and layout/word processing tools that haven't
been true for 10+ years. M$ Word will work just fine, you will have to
spend an hour or so learning how to make it sing, before you start your
thesis. This is about 1/10 as long as TeX, which in my opinion is time
better spent actually doing the thesis. Get a good book on Word or spend
10 minutes searching the web and read some of the tutorials. I found
this one right away with google.
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/ew/thesis/Thesis_word.html
As far as the part about big word documents... I haven't had that
problem in a few years. My wife wrote her thesis in word and it had 800+
megs of graphics (if I remember correctly). I've actually been opening
trace logs at work using word because emacs chokes after a few gigs of
text and says the file is to big, and vim just seems to hang.
|
Certainly it is possible to write technical documents with Word. For some
aspects, it is much easier than LaTeX. But if you are interested in the
appearance of your presentation, you need a tool that can give you
flexible, neat and above all consistent presentation. Word is flexible -
you do everything yourself manually, but if you think you think Word gives
nice looking documents, you haven't looked at a properly LaTeX'ed
document. And consistency in Word is something enforced by the user - you
must rigorously stick to using styles properly - something that most Word
users are completly ignorant of. And if you want to change something,
it's even worse. Styles are basically limited to paragraph formatting,
which will (as long as you use it correctly) get you consistent sizes and
spacings for headers and the like.
But supposing you want to use different fonts in your document for
different purposes - you want variables to appear in italic, keywords in
bold and literal text in typewriter font. You have to do everything
manually - a hellish job. And after printing out and previewing, you want
to change your keywords to sans serif because bold was too bright - you
have no chance. With LaTeX, it's as simple as defining a macro at the
start of your document. If you want to change it, change it in one place.
If you are a programmer, LaTeX can provide all sorts of shortcuts using
macros - it's a full programming language. There are endless supplies of
ready-writen macros and packages available, or you can easily write them
yourself (writing optomised *TeX macros is an art unto its own, but quick
and dirty ones are easy). I've writen macros to produce timing diagrams
on the fly, or to automatically build up summary tables for an appendix -
I just write the main text, and the summaries are updated automatically.
And what do you get out of it at the end? With Word, you get a doc file
that you can't expect to appear the same on any other system but your own,
using any other printer but the one you used for drafts. You can't even
be sure your page splits and other formating will survive a version
upgrade.
With LaTeX, or more specifically pdfLaTeX, I get a pdf file out. It is
consistent regardless of which machine I view it on, and what I use for
printing. (The LaTeX source is also consistent - I can build the pdf
using any computer and any OS with LaTeX.) When viewing on-screen, I get
a nice table of contents and set of thumbnails, and all cross-references
(internal to the document, or to the wibbly wobbly web) work when clicked
on. You *can* get that sort of functionality with Word and Adobe Acrobat
Writer - with a huge amount of extra work and expense. I get it
effortlessly by writing " \usepackage{hyperref} " at the start of the
document.
If you really want to use a word processor rather than a "document
preparation system", why not use OpenOffice? It can do pretty much
everything that Word can do, other than spread macro viruses, it's free,
and it has lots of other useful features like direct generation of pdf
files.
| Quote: |
Stefan Monnier wrote:
I'd also suggest to ditch MS Word as tool to write your PhD thesis, and
learn LaTeX (or if you want more visual control, LyX or TeXmacs). You may
curse about this suggestion for the first week, but with MS Word, you'll
curse in the last week, which is much worse ;-).
Strongly seconded. For longer documents, MS Word is a source of endless
frustration, including at least in some cases total loss of data.
The lack of any kind of bibtex-like management is a killer in a PhD thesis.
Stefan |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Memberlist
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in