This very important environment variable determines the current mode. There are four possible values: text (text mode), math (mathematical mode), prog (programming mode) and src (source mode). The behaviour of the editor (menus, keystrokes, typesetting, etc.) depends heavily on the mode. For example, the following code may be used in order to include a mathematical formula inside text:

Some other environment variables (mainly the language and the font) also depend on the current mode (in this context, the source mode always behaves in a similar way as the text mode). During copy&paste and search&replace operations, TeXmacs tries to preserve the mode.

A second major environment variable is the current language. In fact, there are three such environment variables: one for each mode. The language in which content is written is responsible for associating a precise semantics to the content. This semantics is used for different purposes:

• The language may specify rules for typesetting content. For instance, the text language specifies punctuation and hyphenation rules. Similarly the mathematical language containns spacing information for mathematical operators.
• Several editing operations depend on the current language: when performing a search or replace operation, TeXmacs is both mode and language sensitive. Similarly, the text language determines the dictionary to use when spell-checking the document.

• The language controls (among other parameters like the mode and the document format) the way content is being converted from one context to another.

  Currently, no real language-dependent conversions have been implemented yet. But in the future one may imagine that copying a piece of English text to a document written in French will perform an automatic translation. Similarly, a mathematical document might be converted from infix to postfix notation.

• The programming language determines the current scripting language in use. Other scripting languages than Scheme are currently only used for interactive sessions, but primitives like extern might become language-sensitive in the future.

At the moment, the current language is mainly used as a hint for indicating the semantics of text: it is not required that a text written in English contains no spelling errors, or that a formula written in a mathematical language is mathematically or even syntactically correct. Nevertheless, the editor is intended to enforce correctness more and more, especially for mathematics.

The language may be specified globally for the whole document in Document→Language and locally for a piece of text in Format→Language.

This environment variables is used in addition to the prog-language variable in order to determine a concrete implementation as well as a particular instance of the current programming language. For instance, in case of the Maxima language, different implementation may be used fooor the underlying Lisp. Similarly, one may wish to run two different instances of Maxima in parallel.

This variable determines the magnification which is applied to all content. Magnifications bigger than one are typically useful for presentations (from slides or from a laptop):

The magnification should not be confused with the font size: contrary to the magnification, the font size may also affect the shapes of the glyphs. The magnification is usually specified for the entire document in Document→Magnification.

The background color for your document, as specified in Document→Color→Background.

The current foreground color of text and graphics, as specified in Document→Color→Foreground or Format→Color.

This flag determines whether we are editing normal text or a style-sheet. The source tree or preamble mode may be selected in Document→View→Edit source tree.

This variable controls the rendering of informative flags, which are for instance used to indicate the locations of otherwise invisible labels or typesetting directives. The info-flag may take the values none, short and detailed:

Usually, the rendering of informative flags is specified document-wide in Document→View→Informative flags.

These variables control the main name of the font, also called the font family. For instance:

Similarly, TeXmacs supports various mathematical fonts:

This variable selects a variant of the major font, like a sans serif font, a typewriter font, and so on. As explained above, variants of a given font are designed to mix well together. Physically speaking, many fonts do not come with all possible variants (sans serif, typewriter, etc.), in which case TeXmacs tries to fall back on a suitable alternative font.

Typical variants for text fonts are rm (roman), tt (typewriter) and ss (sans serif):

In maths mode, a distinction is made between the mathematical variants mr (roman), mt (typewriter) and ms (sans serif) and textual variants rm (roman), bf (bold), etc. In the first case, variables and operators are usually rendered in a different slant, contrary to the second case:

The font series determines the weight of the font. Most fonts only provide regular and bold font weights. Some fonts also provide light as a possible value.

The font shape determines other characters of a font, like its slant, whether we use small capitals, whether it is condensed, and so on. For instance,

The base font size is specified in pt units and is usually invariant throughout the document. Usually, the base font size is 9pt, 10pt, 11pt or 12pt. Other font sizes are usually obtained by changing the magnification or the relative font-size.

The real font size is obtained by multiplying the font-base-size by the font-size multiplier. The following standard font sizes are available from Format→Size:

From a mathematical point of view, the multipliers are in a geometric progression with factor sqrt₄ (2). Notice that the font size is also affected by the index level.

The rendering quality of raster fonts (also called Type 3 fonts), such as the fonts generated by the Metafont program is controlled through its discretization precision in dots per inch. Nowadays, most laser printers offer a printing quality of at least 600dpi, which is also the default dpi setting for TeXmacs. For really high quality printing, professionals usually use a precision of 1200dpi. The dpi is usually set once and for all for the whole document.

The index level increases inside certain mathematical constructs such as indices and fractions. When the index level is high, formulas are rendered in a smaller font. Nevertheless, index levels higher than 2 are all rendered in the same way as index level 2; this ensures that formulas like

remain readable. The index level may be manually changed in Format→Index level, so as to produce formulas like

This environement variable controls whether we are in display style or not. Formulas which occur on separate lines like

are usually typeset in display style, contrary to inline formulas like

are typeset in a smaller font. You may override the default settings using Format→Display style.

By default, formulas like a + ⋯ + z are typeset using a nice, wide spacing around the + symbol. In formulas with scripts like ⅇ^{a + ⋯ + z} + ⅇ^{α + ⋯ + ζ} the readability is further enhanced by using a more condensed spacing inside the scripts: this helps the reader to distinguish symbols occurring in the scripts from symbols occurring at the ground level when the scripts are long. The default behaviour can be overridden using Format→Condensed.

For a high quality typesetting of fraction, it is good to avoid subscripts in numerators to descend to low and superscripts in denominators to ascend to high. TeXmacs therefore provides an additional environment variable math-vpos which takes the value 1 inside numerators, −1 inside denominators and 0 otherwise. In order to see the effect the different settings, consider the following formula:

In this example, the grouping is necessary in order to let the different vertical positions take effect on each a

This environment variable specifies the alignment of the different lines in a paragraph. Possible values are left, center, right and justify:

This parameter controls the quality of the hyphenation algorithm. Possible values are normal and professional. The professional hyphenation algorithm uses a global algorithm on the entire paragraph, whereas the normal one uses a faster first-fit algorithm.

This environment variable controls the width of paragraphs. By default, it is automatically determined as a function of the page (or screen) size and margins.

These environment variables specify absolute left and right margins for the paragraph, with respect to the default left and right margins (which are determined as a function of the page layout). For instance:

Environments like itemize and quote-env which maybe nested usually compute new margins as a function of the old values by adding or subtracting some space:

The par-first parameter specifies the additional indentation which is used for the first line of the paragraph. The aim of first indentations is to indicate the starts of new paragraphs. An alternative technique is the use of vertical whitespace.

The sum of the font size and par-sep determines the ideal distance between two successive base lines in a paragraph (also called the “base line skip”). Of course, when the lines contain large boxes, then this distance may need to be increased. When 1fn for par-sep, one may for instance produce documents with a double interline space:

In the case when two successive lines use different base line skips, then the maximal value is used in order to compute the ideal distance between their baselines. This allows for a reasonable spacing when the font size is changed from one paragraph to another:

This parameter corresponds an additional stretchable amount of whitespace between successive lines in a paragraph. Setting par-line-sep to a small stretchable value which defaults to 0 allows the page breaker to correctly stretch pages which contain a very long textual paragraph. Indeed, par-line-sep vanishes, then the height of a textual paragraph is of the form a + b n, where a and b are constants and n is the number of lines. There is no reason why the usable height of a page should be of this form.

The par-par-sep parameter specifies the amount of vertical whitespace which separates two successive paragraphs. This space is determined in stretchable length units. By default, TeXmacs does not use any whitespace between successive paragraphs, except when no nice page breaks could be found (this explains the use of the fn* length unit). Starts of new paragraphs are rather indicated through the use of first indentations (see table ?).

In the case when two successive paragraph use different paragraph separations, then the maximum of the two is taken. In fact, the par-par-sep length is added to both the vertical spacing before and the vertical spacing after the paragraph.

When a paragraph contains several exceptionally large boxes, then TeXmacs attempts to “shove successive lines into another” as long as none of the boxes collide:

As soon as the horizontal distance between two large boxes is less than par-hor-sep, then they are considered to be in collision. In that case, the vertical distance between them must be at least par-ver-sep. Also, the amount of showing never exceeds 1ex.

When using an interline space of 1.5 or 2, the default value of par-ver-sep allows the user to type larger formulas in the text while preserving a uniform layout. When using a small par-sep and a large par-ver-sep, the distance between two successive lines remains small, except when their contents are horizontally close. This may for instance be used to reduce the space between a short like followed by a centered equation.

This parameter controls the amount of vertical space between successive footnotes.

This environment variable specifies the number of columns into which the text is being typeset. Different numbers of columns may be used successively in the same document.

This environment variable specifies the amount of horizontal whitespace which separates different columns in multi-column mode.

Specify the size of a page when printing out. Most standard formats are available in Document→Page→Size. By default, the paper size is the one of your printer (the default printer settings may be changed in Edit→Preferences→Printer). When the page-type is set to user, then the page size is given by page-width and page-height.

The orientation of pages can be either portrait or landscape.

The current page number. This environment variable should be manipulated with care, since it is not yet available at typesetting time. For a reliable determination of page numbers, one may combine the label and page-ref primitives. Nevertheless, the page-nr variable can be used in the macros which render page headers and footers.

This environment variable really contains the macro which is used for rendering the page-number. By default, it renders page-nr. The macro takes no arguments. In order to simulate a document whose first page number os 123, one may redefine

This parameter specifies the page breaking algorithm. The default optimal algorithm takes into account the global document and tries hard to avoid bad page breaks. The alternative sloppy algorithm uses a fast first-fit algorithm, but produces bad page break with a higher probability. The medium quality algorithm is the same as the optimal algorithm, except for two column content.

This parameter specifies how much stretchable spaces may be extended or reduced in order to fill pages which are too short or too long. A page flexibility of 1 allows spaces to be stretched to their minimal and maximal values. A page flexibility of 0 prevents spaces to be stretched. For other values of page-flexibility the behaviour is linear.

In the case when it is very hard to find good page breaks, this parameter specifies an additional amount of space by which a page is allowed to be reduced.

In the case when it is very hard to find good page breaks, this parameter specifies an additional amount of space by which a page is allowed to be extended.

This environment variable, which is initialized using Document→Page→Type, specifies how pages are rendered on the screen. The following values are available:

paper

Page breaks are visually indicated on the screen. This mode is useful for ajusting the final version of a document before printing or sending it to a publisher. However, the use of this mode slows down the editor since every modification in the document triggers the page-breaking algorithm.

Notice also that the mere selection of this mode does not imply the screen margins and page decorations to be as on paper. In order to previsualize a document in a fully realistic way, you should also set Document→View→Page layout→Show header and footer and Document→View→Page layout→Margins as on paper.

papyrus

The paragraph width is the same as on paper, but page breaking is disabled. This mode is most useful during the editing phase of a document which will ultimately be printed out. It combines a reasonable editing speed with realistic line breaks.

automatic

The paragraph width is as large as possible so as to fit into the current window and page breaking is disabled. This setting, which makes optimal use of the available space on your screen, is useful for documents which are not intended to be printed out. It may for instance be selected when using TeXmacs as a browser or as an interface to computer algebra systems.

In automatic mode, this environement variable contains the width of the screen.

In automatic mode, this environement variable contains the height of the screen.

This flag specifies whether the screen margins are manually specified by the user, or whether they are the same as on paper.

When page-screen-margin is true, then these environment variables determine the margins which are to be used for rendering on the screen.

This flag determines whether the page headers and footers should be visible on the screen. When set to true, it should be noticed that the headers and footers are not always correctly updated when editing. In the case when you suspect them to be wrong, refreshing the display by scrolling down and up should display the correct values.

When page-width-margin is set to false, then the paragraph width par-width is determined automatically from the page size and the left and right margins. When set to true, the left and right margins are determined as a function of the page size, the paragraph width, page-odd-shift and page-even-shift. For compatability with TeX/LaTeX, it is also possible to set page-width-margin to tex, in which case the horizontal margins are determined from page-odd, page-even and par-width. The page-height-margin variable plays a similar role for the vertical margins.

By default, the width and height of a page are automatically determined from the page type. When page-type is set to user, then the user may manually specify the page size using page-width and page-height.

If page-width-margin is set to false, then page-odd and page-even specify the left margins for odd and even pages. If page-width-margin is true, then these values are computed as a function of the page size, the paragraph width, page-odd-shift and page-even-shift. When page-odd and page-even are set to auto, then a nice default left margin is determined as a function of the specified page type.

If page-width-margin is set to false, then page-right specifies the right margin for odd pages. The right margin for even pages is given by the formula

If page-width-margin is true or when page-right is set to auto, then the right margin is determined in a similar way as the left margin.

If page-width-margin is set to true, then the left margins for odd and even pages are determined from the page size, paragraph width and the margin shifts using the formulas

The right margin is always taken to be such that the paragraph width and the left and right margins sum up to the page width.

These environment variables contain the header and footer texts for odd and even pages.

These parameters determine the space between the main text and page headers and footers. They correspond to the h and f distances at the right hand side of figure ?.

The separation between the main text and footnotes, i.e. the distance d in figure ?.

The length of the foornote bar.

The separation between the main text and floating objects.

The separation between marginal notes and the main text (not implemented yet).

The width of marginal notes (not implemented yet).

These parameters indicate a hint for the dimensions of the table. The table-hmode and table-vmode variables determine how to take into account these settings.

These parameters specify how to determine the dimensions of the table. At the moment, the values of table-hmode and table-vmode are actually ignored and table-width and table-height are interpreted as the minimal width and height of the table.

These parameters determine how the table should be aligned in the surrounding text. Possible values for table-halign are l (left), c (center) and r (right), and possible values for table-valign are t (top), f (centered at fraction bar height), c (center) and b (bottom).

In addition to the above values, the alignment can take place with respect to the baselines of particular cells. Such values for table-halign are L (align w.r.t. the left column), C (align w.r.t. the middle column), R (align w.r.t. the right column) and O (align w.r.t. the priviledged origin column table-col-origin). Similarly, table-halign may take the additional values T (align w.r.t. the top row), C (align w.r.t. the middle row), B (align w.r.t. the bottom row) and O (align w.r.t. the priviledged origin row table-row-origin).

Table coordinates of an priviledged “origin cell” which may be used for aligning the table in the surrounding text (see above).

Padding around the table (in addition to the padding of individual cells).

Border width for the table (in addition to borders of the individual cells).

A flag which specifies whether page breaks may occur at the middle of rows in the table. When table-hyphen is set to y, then such page breaks may only occur when

1. The table is not surrounded by other markup in the same paragraph.
2. The rows whether the page break occurs has no borders.

An example of a tabular environment which allows for page breaks is eqnarray*.

It is possible to specify a minimal and maximal numbers of rows or columns for the table. Such settings constraint the behaviour of the editor for operations which may modify the size of the table (like the insertion and deletion of rows and columns). This is particularly useful for tabular macros. For instance, table-min-columns and table-max-columns are both set to 3 for the eqnarray* environment.

A background color for the cell.

Hints for the width and the height of the cell. The real width and height also depend on the modes cell-hmode and cell-vmode, possible filling (see cell-hpart and cell-vpart below), and, of course, on the dimensions of other cells in the same row or column.

When the sum s of the widths of all columns in a table is smaller than the width w of the table itself, then it should be specified what should be done with the unused space. The cell-hpart parameter specifies a part in the unusued space which will be taken by a particular cell. The horizontal part taken by a column is the maximum of the horizontal parts of its composing cells. Now let p_i the so determined part for each column (i∈{1,…,n}). Then the extra horizontal space which will be distributed to this column is p_i (w - s)/(p₁ + ⋯ + p_n). A similar computation determines the extra vertical space which is distributed to each row.

These parameters specify how to determine the width and the height of the cell. If cell-hmode is exact, then the width is given by cell-width. If cell-hmode is min or max, then the width is the minimul resp. maximum of cell-width and the width of the content. The height is determined similarly.

These parameters determine the horizontal and vertical alignment of the cell. Possible values of cell-halign are l (left), c (center), r (right), . (decimal dot), , (decimal comma) and R (vertical baseline). Possible values of cell-valign are t (top), c (center), b (bottom) and B (baseline).

The amount of padding around the cell (at the left, right, bottom and top).

The borders of the cell (at the left, right, bottom and top). The displayed border between cells T_i,j and T_{i,j + 1} at positions (i,j) and (i,j + 1) is the maximum of the borders between the right border of T_i,j and the left border of T_{i,j + 1}. Similarly, the displayed border between cells T_i,j and T_{i + 1,j} is the maximum of the bottom border of T_i,j and the top border of T_{i + 1,j}.

As described above, the dimensions and the alignment of a cell may depend on the dimensions of its content. When cells contain text boxes, the vertical bounding boxes of such text may vary as a function of the text (the letter “k” resp. “y” ascends resp. descends further than “x”). Such differences sometimes leads to unwanted, non-uniform results. The vertical cell correction allows for a more uniform treatment of text of the same font, by descending and/or ascending the bounding boxes to a level which only depends on the font. Possible values for cell-vcorrect are n (no vertical correction), b (vertical correction of the bottom), t (vertical correction of the top), a (vertical correction of bottom and the top).

By default, the cells contain inline content which is not hyphenated. By selecting Table→Special cell properties→Hyphenation→Multi-paragraph, the cell contents becomes multi-paragraph. In that case, cell-hyphen determines how this content is hyphenated. Possible values are n (disable line breaking) and b, c and t (enable line breaking and align at the bottom, center resp. top line).

Certain cells in a table are allowed to span over other cells at their right or below them. The cell-row-span and cell-col-span specify the row span and column span of the cell.

This environment variable may contain a decorating table for the cell. Such a decoration enlarges the table with extra columns and cells. The tmarker primitive determines the location of the original decorated cell and its surroundings in the enlarged table are filled up with the decorations. Cell decorations are not really used at present and may disappear in future versions of TeXmacs.

Other orientations for cells than portrait have not yet been implemented.

In the future, these environment variables should contain the current cell position during the typesetting process.

The principal rendering style for source trees as specified in Document→View→Style. Possible values are angular, scheme, functional and latex.

How to render special tags like concat, document, compound, etc., as specified in Document→View→Special. Possible values are raw, format, normal and maximal.

How compact should tags be rendered, as specified in Document→View→Compactification. Possible values are none, inline, normal, inline tags and all.

The rendering style of closing tags as specified in Document→View→Closing style. Possible values are repeat, long, compact and minimal.

This flag specifies whether auxiliary content has to be saved along with the document.

The shrinking factor which is used for rendering.

This flag disables first indentation for the next paragraph.

This variable us used during the typsetting of tables in order to store the with-settings which apply to the current cell.

These environment variables store auxiliary information during the typsetting of decorations.