#655 Can't build doc with pics using TexLive: missing picins.sty

[Timothée Lecomte]

Hi,

Running ./prepare && ./configure && make distcheck on a not-so-old CVS copy, under Ubuntu Hardy, gives the following error :

It looks like picins.sty has never been distributed in Texlive, the newer TeX distribution that Ubuntu Hardy ships instead of teTeX (for license reasons it seems).

According to CTAN, wrapfig is a similar package, included in teTeX, MikTeX and TeXlive. I would be nice to use that instead.

Thanks,

Timothée

[Timothée Lecomte]

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The error, missing in the initial comment, is of course:

! LaTeX Error: File `picins.sty' not found.

[Ethan Merritt]

Use wrapfig rather than picins (1st attempt)

[Ethan Merritt]

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I chose picins because that is what LyX uses, so I had a model to work with. Out of curiousity, does Ubuntu ship a suitably modified version of LyX, or does it just leave you having to download picins.sty separately?

It's hardly unusual to require addition TeX modules beyond those that are in a standard distribution. I have a dozen or so that I've had to download in order to use various journal-supplied latex templates when submitting manuscripts.

Having said that, I really don't care what TeX package is used so long as it works. My machines have wrapfig.sty also, but I've never looked at it, and my quick attempt to substitute it (see attached patch) does not work as well as the picins version. In particular wrapfig seems to have problems with the vertical placement of the figure, and sometimes draws it off the bottom of the page. Allowing the placement to float makes it worse.

Maybe you can find a working wrapfig example to use as a model?
File Added: wrapfig_20apr2008.patch

[Ethan Merritt]

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Update:
I'm running texlive now, and picins works just fine here.

[Dan Sebald]

I've run into this problem (2017) with "make dist":

(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/graphics.cfg)
(/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/pdftex-def/pdftex.def))))

! LaTeX Error: File `picins.sty' not found.

Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)

It seems this file may not be present in texlive because of the absence of any license information of the original authors:

https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/20174/why-does-picins-exist-in-miktex-but-it-does-not-exist-in-tex-live
https://github.com/sharelatex/github-latex-ci/issues/10
http://www.tug.org/pipermail/tex-live/2007-December/015186.html

The package can be found here:

https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex209/contrib/picins