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I'm writing my Bachelor's thesis in \LaTeX and I noticed e.g. Python and Matplotlib have a preferred reference they want you to cite to acknowledge the project as a whole. What is the best/most formal reference I should cite when I want to acknowledge the developers and the community as a whole?

ByteMe
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  • I think cite is the wrong term here, since you don't cite anything. But you can add somewhere: The typesetting was done with LaTeX. If you like, use \LaTeX instead. – Johannes_B May 16 '16 at 08:38
  • @Johannes_B Actually, you may use LaTeX only when \LaTeX is not available. – Henri Menke May 16 '16 at 08:41
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    You could cite the user guides of the packages you used, i.e. when you write in your acknowledgements “graphics with PGF/TikZ”, then cite pgfmanual.pdf. In general this very uncommon though. – Henri Menke May 16 '16 at 08:44
  • @HenriMenke I am not a fan of \LaTeX (as a logo) anymore. – Johannes_B May 16 '16 at 08:46
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    If really want to give something back to the community then become a member of your local TeX user group or of TUG. – Henri Menke May 16 '16 at 08:46
  • @Johannes_B Please explain this to me in chat. – Henri Menke May 16 '16 at 08:59
  • IMHO, I think it is a great idea to share the software and tools used to create awesome documents - good advertising to make people aware that there are alternatives available to commercial offerings with less capabilities. – ozhank May 16 '16 at 10:15
  • Would you cite if you had typeset it in Microsoft Word? – percusse May 16 '16 at 10:31
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    @percusse :No, I wouldn't have, because I'm not grateful for Microsoft Word. Not only does it require buying the software, it isn't open to contributions from the community and it's simply a pain in the neck to work with. I want to acknowledge LaTeX because the community provides a superior typesetting system for free, with awesome community driven support. – ByteMe May 16 '16 at 10:49
  • It's independent from the software quality. If you cite one you have to cite the other. That's why I'm asking. You can't cherry pick based on gratefulness if you are citing. Acknowledging is a different story. There is a big difference. – percusse May 16 '16 at 10:59

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Since it's a thesis and therefore an official document, if you want to say that your thesis was done in Latex (and so on), there's the colophon.

From Wikipedia:

In publishing, a colophon is a brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. A colophon may also be emblematic or pictorial in nature.

I'd use that. Actually I did use that in my own thesis, and — to be precise — I chose a rotated triangle shape. I still placed it at the end of my document though, after my bibliography.

There are many other shapes and you could choose no shape at all (just search images for "colophon"), but a simple paragraph seemed so bland to me, so I went for the triangle which still retains some sobriety.

Community
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Alenanno
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  • link to rotated triangle shape is dead. – naphaneal May 16 '16 at 10:00
  • @naphaneal Ops! Fixed. – Alenanno May 16 '16 at 10:08
  • Thanks for the colophon suggestion! I guess it's also a good place to provide a bibtex entry for my own thesis if anyone wants to cite my work? – ByteMe May 16 '16 at 10:43
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    @ByteMe I haven't used it like that, so I don't know the answer to that question. But I'm sure that if that was the case, you'd find examples of colophons showing that. I merely wrote that I used Latex, the packages as well as my own modifications, the font, etc. – Alenanno May 16 '16 at 10:48
  • @Alenanno : I would put the colophon and the Bibtex entry on the same page. – ByteMe May 16 '16 at 10:50