The fbithesis Package

 
fbithesis
 
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Status
Overview
Download
FAQ
Installation
Contact

fbithesis is a LATEX 2ε package providing a new documentclass tuned for research reports or internal reports like master/phd-theses at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Dortmund.

News Flashes

2011/05/18: added a flattr button

2011/02/07: uploaded new version 1.2m to CTAN.

2006/07/03: fbithesis has a new home: http://fbithesis.kand.de

2003/01/08: fbithesis is installed on CTAN. You may find it in macros/latex/fbithesis/

2003/01/08: New version v1.0 is out! The changes:

  • The first stable release of fbithesis
  • Almost only cosmetic changes: many typos fixed

2003/01/03: Version v0.8, the changes:

  • Invariant Positioning: \titelvadjust and \titelhadjust aren't needed any more

Version v0.7 (never released), the changes:

  • Support for the enhanced title coming with KOMA-Script
  • A better way to strech characters

2002/10/21: Version v0.6, the changes:

  • Internationalization (german and english are possible at the moment)
  • Providing test logos
  • A custom logo is possible
  • Better marks to make the adjustment of the title page easier

Status

Current stable version: fbithesis.dtx v1.2m (2011/02/06)
The stable version is distributed by CTAN.

Current development version: fbithesis.dtx v1.2n (2011/02/07)

fbithesis is Copyright © 2002-2011 by Andre Dierker

fbithesis is Free Software. It can be freely used, modified and distributed under the terms of The LATEX Project Public License, either version 1.3 of this license or (at your option) any later version.

Overview

At the Department of Computer Science there are cardboards (see Figure 2) for internal reports like master/phd-theses. So if one uses book or report as base class for a thesis, the result will be a title page as in Figure 1. Since the titel page is incompatible to the cardboard one have to use the \begin{titlepage}...\end{titlepage} environment to generate something that fits the cardboard.

The fbithesis package provides a new LATEX 2ε documentclass. Its main function is a replacement for the \maketitle command. It is redefined to typeset a title page adjusted to the cardboard (as seen in Figure 3).

title page as made by book the cardboard title page as made by fbithesis
Figure 1: The title page, as generated by the book-class Figure 2: The cardboard, used by the Department of Computer Science Figure 3: The title page, as generated by the fbithesis-class

Download

Warning: This is the development version of fbithesis! It is completly untested and may contain many bugs! The current stable version of fbithesis may be found at CTAN.

The distribution of fbithesis consists of the package (fbithesis.dtx) and the OpenPGP signature (fbithesis.dtx.asc). Perhaps you want to fetch the complete tar-ball (fbithesis.tar) or the compress tar-ball (fbithesis.tgz). The signature is made with GnuPG, using the software distribution key (distribution.key): 

pub  1024D/F4D24AC9 2002-04-01 Andre Dierker (software distribution key) <software@kand.de>
     Key fingerprint = 461E 2EB4 DE3A 6BC8 3320  2A7B 59C5 21EA F4D2 4AC9
        
      Name                        Last modified       Size  Description


[GPG-Key] distribution.key            07-Feb-2011 02:07     1k  OpenPGP key
[PDF] example.pdf                 07-Feb-2011 02:07    96k  
[   ] example.tex                 07-Feb-2011 02:07     5k  
[TEX] fbithesis.dtx               07-Feb-2011 02:07   194k  fbithesis-package
[TXT] fbithesis.dtx.asc           07-Feb-2011 02:07     1k  OpenPGP signature
[TEX] fbithesis.ins               07-Feb-2011 02:07     6k  LaTeX install. commands
[PDF] fbithesis.pdf               07-Feb-2011 02:07   671k  Documentation
[TAR] fbithesis.tar               07-Feb-2011 02:07   987k  Complete tar-ball
[TGZ] fbithesis.tgz               07-Feb-2011 02:07   816k  Compressed tar-ball
[TXT] google70d42bf5f70bc5f9.html 28-Apr-2011 10:34     1k  
[PDF] vortrag.pdf                 10-Jan-2005 21:36   490k  foils of a talk

Warning: This is the development version of fbithesis!

FAQ

Why the name?

Department of Computer Science is in german Fachbereich Informatik, or in short FBI. So in this case `FBI' has nothing to do with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

What's ‘vortrag.pdf’?

On June 12, 2002 I held a small lecture at the TeX Stammtisch Dortmund about the making of fbithesis (version v0.4 at that time). The title was „Erstellung und Dokumentation von Dokumentklassen und Makropaketen“. You may get the foils (german only) in the download-section.

Installation

fbithesis.dtx is an ‘one-file-contains-it-all’. It contains (of course) the fbithesis.cls-file and its documentation (not to forget a customizable driver for the docu), but also the fbithesis.ins batch file, an example, a ‘read me’ and the LPPL

It is recommended to check the integrity of the package before installing. This is done with fbithesis.dtx.asc (a OpenPGP signature made with GnuPG) and the key 1024D/F4D24AC9 2002-04-01 Andre Dierker (software distribution key) <software@kand.de>. Verify fbithesis.dtx.asc with PGP or GnuPG (for GnuPG this is ‘gnupg --verify fbithesis.dtx.asc’) to be sure, you got the complete and unmanipulated distribution.

To start the installation, run fbithesis.dtx through LATEX (‘latex fbithesis.dtx’). This will generate the batch file (fbithesis.ins), a README.txt and a lppl.txt. Additionally the documentation (fbithesis.dvi) is generated (to get the cross-references right, you have to rerun this twice, however).

The actual installation is done by running the newly generated fbithesis.ins through LATEX (‘latex fbithesis.ins’). This will generate the fbithesis.cls file, an example.tex and the documentation driver (fbithesis.drv).

To finish the installation it is recommended to move fbithesis.cls into a directory searched by LATEX (on a TDS compliant LATEX installation this would be ‘$(TEXMF)/doc/tex/latex/misc/’ for example). The files fbithesis.dvi and example.tex should be moved to where you collect the documentations (on a TDS installation ‘$(TEXMF)/doc/tex/latex/fbithesis/’).

So, in short you have to do the following:

  1. Check integrity of the package:
    • ‘gnupg --verify fbithesis.dtx.asc’
  2. Generate the documentation:
    • ‘latex fbithesis.dtx’
  3. Generate the fbithesis.cls file:
    • ‘latex fbithesis.ins’
  4. Finish the documentation:
    • ‘latex fbithesis.dtx’
    • ‘latex fbithesis.dtx’
  5. Optionally:
    • Move fbithesis.cls
    • Move fbithesis.dvi and example.tex

Contact

If you find any bugs or if you have suggestions for enhancements, I'd by glad to hear from you.

Last change: 2011/02/07, Andre Dierker