[Gretl-users] TeX export issues

[Allin Cottrell]

On Tue, 10 Apr 2007, Talha Yalta wrote:

> I have been using the TeX export functionality of gretl, which 
> is very useful. I also noticed some problems. I don't know if 
> these are bugs but I wanted to report nonetheless:
> 
> 1- In the TeX file of the model tables I see the 
> "\footnotesize{}" command before each item in each cell, which 
> makes the table difficult to read and touch up in LaTeX. 
> Wouldn't it be better if there was \begin{footnotesize} and 
> \end{footnotesize} at the beginning and the end of the table?

No. The "footnotesize" specification is not used in every cell.  
It is used to make the standard errors (or t-ratios) smaller than 
the coefficients.

> 2- In some cells I have "$\,\,$" or $\,$. I am not sure what 
> these are for (I just erease these).

In TeX "\," is a "thinspace".  This is used to improve spacing 
when the default is not ideal.  Typsetting a regression equation 
is not a standard TeX task, and I find that these extra spaces are 
desirable.

> 3- Instead of the "$-$0.7971$^{**}$" format, wouldn't it be 
> better for all the cells containing numbers to just be in the 
> formula mode such as $-0.7971^{**}$ ?

No, that would produce undesirable results for very large and very 
small coefficients, where the C library's "printf()" produces 
representations such as "2.456e-06".  The exponent part looks 
quite wrong if the entire number is in TeX math mode (it seems as 
if "e" is a variable).

> 4- After experimenting a little bit, I now see that 6 models is 
> what can be fit in a portrait page. Still, could you please make 
> it 8 or even 12? I know 6 will be enough for most purposes 
> however: a)- there might be need for more than 6 in some cases 
> (right now I need 8) b)- Even though more than 6 is difficult to 
> fit in a portrait page, it is possible to choose a landscpe page 
> later (would be even better if there was an option for this in 
> TeX export options).

A landscape option would be good, I agree.  I'll take a look at 
the other possibilities too.

> 5- Request: I don't know how difficult this is to implement but 
> exporting a table in a way where all &'s are vertically alligned 
> would make it easier to read and edit in TeX later...

I see how that could be useful.  It would be quite tedious to 
code, I'm afraid! ;-)

Allin.