TeX-related Compilation Commands for Various TeX Formats and Engines

Jan. 26, 2025

On the 31th page of the book, Introduction to LaTeX¹, Haiyang Liu provides a table to conclude TeX-related compilation commands for various TeX formats and engines:

I ever mentioned this table in my blogs for several times²³. So, for the convenience of my future use, I’d like to reproduce it, but in English, in this blog.

Method 1: By LaTeX TikZ

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multirow,diagbox,hologo}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzmark,decorations.pathreplacing,positioning}

\newcommand{\mybox}[1]{\makebox[\widthof{(special parameters)}][c]{#1}}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
	\renewcommand\arraystretch{2}
	\caption{Compilation commands for various \TeX\ formats and engines}
	\vspace{0.5em}
	\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
		\hline
		\diagbox{\TeX\ engine}{Command}{\TeX\ format} & Plain \TeX & \LaTeX & \hologo{ConTeXt} \\ \hline
		\TeX/\hologo{eTeX} & \texttt{tex}/\texttt{etex} & & \mybox{}\tikzmarknode{a}{} \\ \hline
		\multirow{2}*{\hologo{pdfTeX}} & \texttt{tex} & \texttt{latex} & \mybox{}\tikzmarknode{b}{} \\ \cline{2-4}
		& \texttt{pdftex} & \texttt{pdflatex} & \mybox{\texttt{texexec}}\tikzmarknode{c}{}\\ \hline 
		\hologo{XeTeX} & \texttt{xetex} & \texttt{xelatex} & \mybox{(special parameters)}\\ \hline 
		\hologo{LuaTeX} & \texttt{luatex} & \texttt{lualatex} & \mybox{\texttt{context}}\tikzmarknode{d}{}\\ \hline
	\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
	\node (aa) [above right=0.5em and 1em of a] {};
	\node (bb) [below right=0.25em and 1em of b] {};
	\node (cc) [above right=0.5em and 1em of c] {};
	\node (dd) [below right=0.25em and 1em of d] {};
	\draw[decorate,decoration={brace},semithick]
		(aa) -- node[right=3pt] {Output DVI file} (bb);
	\draw[decorate,decoration={brace},semithick]
		(cc) -- node[right=3pt] {Output PDF file} (dd);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The difficulty making this table lies in how to annotate curly braces and text–“Output DVI file” and “Output PDF file”–beside the table. My solution refers to the examples⁴ and⁵ : firstly use \tikzmarknode to locate a node, and next use tikzpicture environment with options [remember picture,overlay] (both two options are necessary) to annotate. Among which, the curly braces are drawn using the \draw command with options [decorate,decoration={brace},semithick]⁶ (TikZ packagedecorations.pathreplacing is needed).

Another point should be noted is that, in example⁴, ++⁷ is used to position a node having a relative distance from a given node, but seemingly it doesn’t work for the “end node”, for example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multirow,diagbox,hologo}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzmark,decorations.pathreplacing,positioning}

\newcommand{\mybox}[1]{\makebox[\widthof{(special parameters)}][c]{#1}}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
	\renewcommand\arraystretch{2}
	\caption{Compilation commands for various \TeX\ formats and engines}
	\vspace{0.5em}
	\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
		\hline
		\diagbox{\TeX\ engine}{Command}{\TeX\ format} & Plain \TeX & \LaTeX & \hologo{ConTeXt} \\ \hline
		\TeX/\hologo{eTeX} & \texttt{tex}/\texttt{etex} & & \mybox{}\tikzmarknode{a}{} \\ \hline
		\multirow{2}*{\hologo{pdfTeX}} & \texttt{tex} & \texttt{latex} & \mybox{}\tikzmarknode{b}{} \\ \cline{2-4}
		& \texttt{pdftex} & \texttt{pdflatex} & \mybox{\texttt{texexec}}\tikzmarknode{c}{}\\ \hline 
		\hologo{XeTeX} & \texttt{xetex} & \texttt{xelatex} & \mybox{(special parameters)}\\ \hline 
		\hologo{LuaTeX} & \texttt{luatex} & \texttt{lualatex} & \mybox{\texttt{context}}\tikzmarknode{d}{}\\ \hline
	\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\begin{tikzpicture}[remember picture,overlay]
	\draw[decorate,decoration={brace},semithick]
		(a)++(1em,0.5em) -- node[right=3pt] {Output DVI file} (b)++(1em,0.25em);
	\draw[decorate,decoration={brace},semithick]
		(c)++(1em,0.5em) -- node[right=3pt] {Output PDF file} (d)++(1em,0.25em);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I don’t know why and don’t find an available solution, so finally I adopt the above used syntax provided by TikZ package positioning⁸⁹.

Method 2: By nicematrix package

Another reproduction method is by using functions provided by nicematrix package¹⁰.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nicematrix,hologo}

\begin{document}
\begin{table}
	\renewcommand\arraystretch{2}
	\caption{Compilation commands for various \TeX\ formats and engines}
	\vspace{0.5em}
	\centering
	\begin{NiceTabular}{wc{5cm}ccc}[hvlines,last-col,margin=2pt]
		\diagbox{\TeX\ engine}{Command}{\TeX\ format} & Plain \TeX & \LaTeX & \hologo{ConTeXt} & \\[2em]
		\TeX/\hologo{eTeX} & \texttt{tex}/\texttt{etex} & & & \Block{2-1}{\ Output DVI file}\\ 
		\Block{2-1}{\hologo{pdfTeX}} & \texttt{tex} & \texttt{latex} & & \\
		& \texttt{pdftex} & \texttt{pdflatex} & \texttt{texexec} & \Block{3-1}{\ Output PDF file}\\
		\hologo{XeTeX} & \texttt{xetex} & \texttt{xelatex} & (special parameters) & \\ 
		\hologo{LuaTeX} & \texttt{luatex} & \texttt{lualatex} & \texttt{context} & \\
	\CodeAfter
		\SubMatrix\}{2-5}{3-5}.[xshift=-.3em]
		\SubMatrix\}{4-5}{6-5}.[xshift=-.3em]
	\end{NiceTabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}

However, it can be seen that, the command \diagbox doesn’t work as expected in the NiceTabular environment of nicematrix package. As the nicematrix package documentation said¹¹,

The command \diagbox (inspired by the package diagbox), allows, when it is used in a cell, to slash that cell diagonally downwards.

but this \diagbox command isn’t as functional as that of diagbox package like in the first reproduction.

Besides, in this method, the position of annotation content isn’t easily controlled with precision.

References