CIFTEX

Section: User Commands (1)

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
BUGS
AUTHOR
SEE ALSO

NAME

ciftex - filter to typeset Crystallographic Information File using TeX

SYNOPSIS

ciftex [-option ...] < input-file-name > output-file-name

DESCRIPTION

Ciftex reads a stream of text in CIF(5) format, and transforms it to a TeX output stream suitable for direct typesetting. The format of the typeset text is determined by specifying different map and format files at runtime. The normal use of ciftex is to take a Crystallographic Information File submitted to a journal for publication, preprocess it with the utility quasar(1) to select the subset of data items required for a crystal structure paper in Acta Crystallographica Section C, and transform the selected subset to a TeX file in the IUCr house style.

A CIF data name is translated to a replacement text (usually a TeX command name) as specified in the map file. This file consists of lines of the form

_cif_data_name Nc\TeXcode

where the space separates the fields defining the mapping from the CIF data name to the replacement text. Lines beginning with a hash character "#" are ignored. The first two characters of the replacement text field are special --- the first (N or T) flags whether the data name is expected to occur in normal text (or in a non-tabular loop), or in a table. The second is an arbitrary character (usually alphabetic, though not necessarily so) which is common to data names expected to occur in a related block. Ciftex tests this character in the current replacement text; if it is different from that previously recorded (let us say b where the previous data name was associated with a character a ), then the format file is searched for a line or lines beginning "#b:", and the remainder of such lines is output without change. The output text is thus usually TeX code that should be output at that position within the paper, such as section headings.

Lines beginning "#[:" and "#]:" are output at the beginning and end of the ciftex run, respectively.

Data usually printed in tabular form is handled somewhat differently by ciftex, and the replacement text field for such data should contain the heading for the appropriate column in the printed table.

OPTIONS

-H: Hydrogen atoms in coordinate tables should be printed.
-N: Hydrogen atoms in coordinate tables should not be printed. This is the default. The H-atom lines in the table are printed on standard output, but are prefixed by a "%" (the TeX comment character) and so ignored by TeX.
-d: Operate in "dictionary" mode, so that strings including underlines that occur within text or character data are printed verbatim, and not interpreted as active data names that require substitution by TeX command codes.
-map map-file-name: The name of the file containing information on the mapping between CIF data names and TeX commands (or other replacement text). The default file is /usr/local/lib/cif/map.
-format format-file-name: The name of the file containing TeX instructions that are output at various positions depending on the current data name. The default file is /usr/local/lib/cif/format. Note that because the entries in the map and format files are parsed differently, the same file may be used for both purposes.

BUGS

Many. The program is still under development. To analyse why some input text is incorrectly handled, operate ciftex in interactive mode (i.e. use terminal as standard input and standard output).

AUTHOR

B. McMahon