6.1182, Sum: Tree macros for LaTeX

[The Linguist List]

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-6-1182. Wed Aug 30 1995. ISSN: 1068-4875. Lines:  80
 
Subject: 6.1182, Sum: Tree macros for LaTeX
 
Moderators: Anthony Rodrigues Aristar: Texas A&M U. <aristar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
            Helen Dry: Eastern Michigan U. <hdry at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Associate Editor:  Ljuba Veselinova <lveselin at emunix.emich.edu>
Assistant Editors: Ron Reck <rreck at emunix.emich.edu>
                   Ann Dizdar <dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu>
                   Annemarie Valdez <avaldez at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Software development: John H. Remmers <remmers at emunix.emich.edu>
 
Editor for this issue: dizdar at tam2000.tamu.edu (Ann Dizdar)
 
---------------------------------Directory-----------------------------------
1)
Date:  Wed, 30 Aug 1995 09:24:30 +0200
From:  schneide at pike.phil.uni-passau.de (Karl-Michael Schneider)
Subject:  Sum: Tree macros for LaTeX
 
---------------------------------Messages------------------------------------
1)
Date:  Wed, 30 Aug 1995 09:24:30 +0200
From:  schneide at pike.phil.uni-passau.de (Karl-Michael Schneider)
Subject:  Sum: Tree macros for LaTeX
 
Some time ago I asked for a good tree macro package for LaTeX. Thanks to the
following people who contributed their knowledge: Jan Odijk, Paul Purdom,
Eric Jackson, Miriam Butt, Helmut Frosch and Craig Thiersch. Here's a short
description of all the macro packages that I found:
 
Greg Lee's "tree" is not a macro package, but a preprocessor. Trees are input
using parenthesis to denote the tree structure. The preprocessor produces
either Plain TeX or PostScript specials. Slanted lines are produced as
PostScript only, which means that one cannot view them on most dvi previewers.
Unfortunately, the PostScript version of my test tree did not print well.
 
tree-dvips.sty (no author indicated) is not a real tree macro package. Among
other things, it provides two macros, \node, which defines a tree node and
names it, and \ncon, which is used to connect two nodes with a line. Slanted
lines are produced as PostScript specials. tree-dvips does not do any tree
formatting, instead one has to explicitly specify the geometry of the tree,
usually by entering the \node definitions into a table (obviously, kerning
can be done easily by hand this way).
 
ecltree.sty (written by Hideki Isozaki) is used together with epic.sty or
eepic.sty. Trees are defined using a bundle environment and a \chunk command
for leafs and subtrees. One can alter the style of the lines that connect
nodes (in order to get dotted lines or dashed lines), and one can define
edge labels in addition to node labels. ecltree.sty does not seem to provide
kerning.
 
tree.sty (written by Edward M. Reingold and Nachum Dershowitz) uses the
pictex.sty macro package. It is limited to binary and unary trees, but it is
a very flexible and powerful package. Trees are defined by means of nested
\tree commands. In addition to ordinary tree nodes, one can have isosceles
triangle subtrees, which is sometimes useful in syntax trees. Also, tree
nodes can be encircled and endiamonded, various parameters can be adjusted,
and one can have labels on the edges that connect nodes. Moreover, it does
not make use of any PostScript or other specials, which means that trees
can be displayed by dvi previewers. Unfortunately, tree.sty does not do
kerning either.
 
qobitree.tex (written by Jeffrey Mark Siskind) is my favorite macro package.
Of all the packages above, it is the easiest to use and gives the best tree
layout. Trees are defined in a simple and intuitive "recursive bottom up"
manner, i.e. one starts with the leaves of the tree and builds larger trees
from previous trees. Kerning is not done automatically either, but can be
achieved simply by means of a \faketreewidth command that redefines the
width of a subtree in such a way that the entire tree becomes narrower.
Like tree.sty, qobitree.tex does not use any specials.
 
Karl-Michael Schneider
Department of General Linguistics
University of Passau, Germany
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