Quote verbatim in Latex

Question

I would like to quote some passages using the quote environment. However the quoted passage contains some math mode equations written in text format like "Your paper is worthless because x^2 +y^2 = 0." I would like to be able to quote this as is, without using the math-mode. Is there something like a mixture of verbatim and quote environments so that I don't have to go through every instance of such equations and replace them with something like \verb*x^2+y^2=0*? Something perhaps with some flexibility in the choice of fonts too.

EDIT: Basically, what I want is all the text-handling capabilities of LaTeX for the quoted text, while treating things like a^2+b^2 = 0 as is, just some characters to be displayed verbatim. I don't know if this is achievable without surrounding a^2+b^2=0 or the like with special characters.

how are Greek letters \sigma... or symbols \sum, \prod supposed to be treated ? — , Sep 09 '15 at 05:55
@jfbu, exactly as they are written \sigma, \sum, \prod. People often do this when writing emails with math symbols. — passerby51, Sep 10 '15 at 09:07

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

4

You can achieve the same effect as in Mico's answer with the help of package shortvrb, to transform $ temporarily as a switch to verbatim.

The quote environment is modified via etoolbox exactly as in Mico's answer.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{shortvrb}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quote}{\MakeShortVerb\$}
\AtEndEnvironment{quote}{\DeleteShortVerb\$}

\begin{document}
\noindent
$a^2 + b^2 = 0$
\begin{quote}
Your paper is worthless because you claim that $a^2 + b^2 = 0$ and that $1 + 1 = 3$.
\end{quote}
$1 + 1 = 3$
\thispagestyle{empty}
\end{document}

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

Community

1

answered Sep 08 '15 at 15:53

1

+1. I didn't know the shortvrb package until I read your answer. – Mico Sep 08 '15 at 16:48
@jfbu, Thanks. As much as I like this answer, this will require me to go through the quoted text and surround math-mode mark-up with $...$. I wanted to avoid this. I should have made this more clear in my question. Although, your solution is still great for what it does. – passerby51 Sep 09 '15 at 02:21

Werner · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-09T06:02:49.123

3

You can set this "verbatim quote" as a regular listing. Below I defined a new listing verbquote:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{listings,lipsum}

\lstnewenvironment{verbquote}[1][]
  {\lstset{columns=fullflexible,
           basicstyle=\ttfamily,
           xleftmargin=2em,
           xrightmargin=2em,
           breaklines,
           breakindent=0pt,
           #1}}% \begin{verbquote}[..]
  {}% \end{verbquote}

\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{verbquote}
Your paper is worthless because x^2 + y^2 = 0. Please reconsider what you are attempting.
\lipsum[2]
\end{verbquote}

\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

All content within verbquote will be set as-is. You can change the font (or any other styles) using any of the options provided for listings.

You can also just reset the category codes of active keys that could cause problems to print them as "other" (category code 12):

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}% http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/48632/5764

\newenvironment{verbquote}
  {\catcode `^=12% Math superscript
   \catcode `_=12% Math subscript
   \catcode `$=12% Math deliniation
   \begin{quote}}
  {\end{quote}}


\begin{document}

\lipsum[1]

\begin{verbquote}
Your paper is worthless because x^2 + y_2 = 0 or about $0. Please reconsider what you are attempting.
\end{verbquote}

\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

edited Sep 09 '15 at 06:02

answered Sep 08 '15 at 14:52

Werner

603,163

I thought the OP wants the regular text font for text material inside a quote, and verbatim look (i.e., a monospace font) for math material. – Mico Sep 08 '15 at 15:11
@Mico, The change of fonts would have been nice, but I guess there is a trade-off with the other thing I want, namely, just copy-pasting what someone wrote without going through adding dollar signs. What I meant by the choice of font was that the whole font for the quoted text need not be typewriter. This answer is closest to what I had in mind. – passerby51 Sep 09 '15 at 02:26
1

@passerby51: You can adjust the basicstyle to suit your needs, or whichever font you want. – Werner Sep 09 '15 at 02:28
@Werner, thanks. I have experimented with your verbqoute, and one thing I don't like about it is how it handles the usual text. LaTeX text looks much better, in terms of spacing and end of line breaks, etc. Is there any way to have that so of thing with a verbatim environment? – passerby51 Sep 09 '15 at 05:45
@passerby51: I've provided an updated version of verbquote that might be useful. There are many more options, but I'm not sure what you might include in the quote. – Werner Sep 09 '15 at 06:06
@Werner, your second solution with category codes does not seem to work even the quoted text contains backslashes (which is usual with math mode writing.) Can I change the category code of a backslash? Then who would TeX know when to stop the environment? – passerby51 Sep 29 '15 at 01:48

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 08 '15 at 15:19

I'm interpreting your objective as follows: (i) Inside quote environments, and only inside quote environments, inline math material -- i.e., stuff that starts and ends with a $ symbol -- should be typeset automatically using a monospaced font rather than in math mode. (ii) All text-mode material inside quote environments should be typeset using the regular text font.

If this interpretation is correct, it may be achieved by using LuaLaTeX and setting up a Lua function which (a) is active only inside quote environments and (b) replaces inline math mode with verbatim mode.

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex
\documentclass{article}

%% Lua-side code
\usepackage{luacode,luatexbase}
\begin{luacode}
do_conversion = false 
function inline_math_to_verbatim ( line )
   if do_conversion then
      return (string.gsub(line,"%$(.-)%$","\\verb&%1&"))
   end
end
-- assign this function to the "process_input_buffer" callback
luatexbase.add_to_callback ( "process_input_buffer", 
    inline_math_to_verbatim, "inline_math_to_verbatim" )
\end{luacode}

%% TeX-side code
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\AtBeginEnvironment{quote}{\luadirect{do_conversion=true}}
\AtEndEnvironment{quote}{\luadirect{do_conversion=false}}

\begin{document}
\noindent
$a^2 + b^2 = 0$
\begin{quote}
Your paper is worthless because you claim that $a^2 + b^2 = 0$ and that $1 + 1 = 3$.
\end{quote}
$1 + 1 = 3$
\end{document}

@passerby51 -- If you don't use $ symbols to delimit math-mode material, what method do you use? — Mico, Sep 09 '15 at 03:15
just typset them as if they where text, like X_{ij} = 2 as is. — passerby51, Sep 09 '15 at 05:49
@passerby51 -- I didn't ask you how the mathy material should be displayed ("as if [it] were text"). Instead, I asked you how TeX should be made aware that some of the material it's dealing with is mathy. — Mico, Sep 09 '15 at 07:30
Ideally it shouldn't be made aware, just like a simple text editor is not aware of them. They are just characters to be displayed. — passerby51, Sep 10 '15 at 09:08

Quote verbatim in Latex

3 Answers3