Evolution of LaTeX towards Overleaf in the CERN accelerator sector

1. Evolution of LaTeX towards Overleaf in the CERN accelerator sector John Jowett Thanks for input to: Roderik Bruce, Massimo Giovannozzi

2. Early History of TeX/LaTeX at CERN * • 1986: audit of Text Processing at CERN by the Management Information Systems Task Force • https://cds.cern.ch/record/821495/files/mis-note-1986-055.pdf (and many others) • *“Our current system” = CERNpaper based on SCRIPT • 1986: accelerator physicist brings tape of TeX system from SLAC and gets it installed on IBM mainframe • https://cds.cern.ch/record/818581 • Despite very few usable printers, and no graphics on screens, it catches on …

3. Document classes/styles, templates and examples • In the late 1980s, it was already clear that effective use of LaTeX depended on ready availability of useful templates and examples for appropriate CERN document classes. • Because people do not read the manual • Bad practice epidemics: people copy files full of errors/hacks from their “expert” friends who never read the manual either but compensate by being clever … • (Also see this from other places when reviewing for journals.) • Examples were created for LEP, later SL, later AB, later BE, AT, TE Division Notes, Reports, CERN Yellow Reports, EPAC (later JACoW). • Some of these still around after repeated re-branding over the years. • Basically volunteer work (and de facto support) at group level (usually somebody in the accelerator physics group). Little official support.

4. Further evolution • Lack of centralised support for LaTeX meant many branches of evolution on different platforms (IBM mainframes disappeared, umpteen Unix flavours emerged and disappeared, Windows, Macs) with more or less up-to-date LaTeX installations • Once you work on more than one PC, installing LaTeXbecomes a bit of a chore … • LaTeX use in accelerator sector in the period ~1990-~2010 got a bit messy until some of us started using Overleaf (or writeLaTeX) around 2014 • Immediate and huge gains in efficiency: • Complete up-to-date installation available everywhere • Collaborative editing, no more drafts by email • Later, CERN Scientific Information Policy Board initiated trial of Overleaf from 2016 • Good experience in writing several large collaborative documents • E.g., HL-LHC Physics Workshop (2016-18) https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.06772etc

5. Typical, but not so useful, template (from Overleaf’s CERN pages) Administrator/business person’s idea of a scientific talk - all about corporate image. Doesn’t actually compile for user because CERN theme is not present. Big waste of valuable space, painted blue US/archaic date format No examples of how to construct anything useful beyond infinitely nested section levels and bullet points. More US stuff

6. An apparently more useful template? (1) Should not need a copy here Correct date format, implemented in 1988 version (LEP MD Note)! Hangover from early 1990s search technology

7. An apparently more useful template? (2) Useful concrete technical example, including a figure, a fairly complicated formula, … ? Copious use of \cdotfor multiplication – weird thing that has been copied around accelerator sector for decades! Should use \sin, \tan, ditto Elaborate clever/WYSIWIG hacking substitutes for reading manual about how to do text in mathematics mode! Terrible result. But violates many conventions of good mathematical typesetting, contributing to bad practice epidemics. See also values with physical units

8. Bibliographies • Ideal (one variant): • I have a myMaster.bib file, accumulating all references I tend to cite, from one paper/report to the next. • To add a new reference, I just copy BibTeX data from CDS or INSPIREHEP. • It just works, independent of the publisher’s document class. • Reality: • I have to manually adapt some/most of the references in my myMaster.bib file to the present paper and this breaks past papers (so I need to start a new copy …). • The data fields from databases are never quite right. • BiBTeX data for accelerator physics references (eg, JACoW) from CDS, Inspire, almost never work without manual massaging.   • No working BiBTeX example for, eg, JACoW (recent tool for LaTeX-format internal-JACoW citations means you can’t use BiBTeX any more).  • Somebody needs to sort this out across CDS/Inspire/Overleaf/JACoW/…

9. Things that always need to be fixed • Dates and spelling! • Non-US spelling checker should be default in Europe, at least in CERN • Non-US date format should be default in ALL document classes • Too many packages with overlapping functionality?

10. Wishlist • Can Overleaf experts check/clean up/improve CERN templates ? • Clear examples of how to structure large documents so you can work on one part at a time (mainly for speed)? • Probably exists (S. Schuh later …) but some complicated variants thrust upon us  • Coordination of BiBTeX data generation with CDS, INSPIREHEP and our usual publishers (JACoW, …). • Input palettes (as well as the auto-completion) • Copy “equations” and other fragments between Overleaf and Powerpoint/Word • MathType does this very well in both directions (one way by clipboard bitmap is OK)  • Grammar checker (the big advantage of Word)? • My ideal: after willy-nilly content creation by scientific staff, documents should be edited for good practice by a LaTeX expert editor before publication  • This was the system at SLAC in 1986 … needs special staff but ultimately this is very efficient. 

11. Summary • Adoption of Overleaf by CERN is a terrific opportunity to increase efficiency of scientific writing (especially collaborative) and the quality of publications that present our scientific output to the world. • But we need to learn, and implement, some lessons from the long history of previous LaTeX use at CERN: • Centralised production and maintenance of templates (with examples of good practice) and document classes • Light review process by competent experts (watch out for self-appointed experts who spread bad practice epidemics)? • Overleaf online tutorial material should help with the “read the manual” problem and bad practice epidemics.