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I was trying to reproduce Claudio Fiandrino's answer to How can we draw a Hannukah Menorah with decorations, using TikZ?. However, I do not have the hobby package by Andrew Stacey in my local distribution. After reading Update TikZ/PGF on mac and How to install a current version of TikZ?, I looked at the latest TikZ/PGF CVS (build on December 7, 2012) but could not located the hobby package in it. I found the hobby directory but do not know where each file is supposed to go in my distribution.

How do I add the hobby package? In general, what would be the easy way to get any new TikZ package installed in a Mac?

EDIT: I have used the drag-and-drop (mac) method as described below.

(1) Drag pml3array.sty file to /Users/Username/Library/texmf/tex/latex folder.
(2) Drag hobby.code.tex file to /Users/Username/Library/texmf/tex/generic/pgf/math folder.
(3) Drag pgflibraryfpu.code.tex to /Users/Username/Library/texmf/tex/generic/pgf/libraries folder.
(4) Drag tikzlibraryhobby.code.tex to /Users/Username/Library/texmf/tex/generic/pgf/frontendlayer/tikz/libraries folder.

I no longer get the hobby cannot be found error message. But, is this correct?

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Sony
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    It's not an official library release but originated from this question http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/54771/curve-through-a-sequence-of-points-with-metapost-and-tikz you can find it in http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~tex-sx/tex-sx/development/files – percusse Dec 10 '12 at 12:53
  • @percusse Could you turn that comment into an answer? – Seamus Dec 10 '12 at 13:00
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    Also on CTAN: http://ctan.org/pkg/hobby – Joseph Wright Dec 10 '12 at 13:02
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    I guess it's not meaningful to have questions and answers with "where is package X" and "On CTAN. And on dev page Y". So I suggest closing, as Sony got the information, either as too localized or as a duplicate to the question to which @percusse linked. – Stefan Kottwitz Dec 10 '12 at 13:07
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    @StefanKottwitz I agree, voted for duplicate. And for the users of hobby packege in answers; May I suggest that you put this info as a comment to make sure that users are directed to the package? – percusse Dec 10 '12 at 13:09
  • @percusse: I'm going to add this reference in some of my hobby answers. :) – Claudio Fiandrino Dec 10 '12 at 13:25
  • @percusse: I do not see how the so called exact duplicate help me? I still do not know where each file in the hobby directory go. (See the link in the question.) But, if this question is not TeX related then I accept removing it. (I included only percusse as this system does not allow me to include Barbara Beeton and Stefan Kottowitz.) – Sony Dec 10 '12 at 14:29
  • @Sony I understand your point but the linked question has a link to the CTAN package in the beginning of the question and alternatively you can run the .dtx file (after obtaining all hobby related files from the launcpad site I've linked above) in your working directory without having the files correctly included in respective directories. – percusse Dec 10 '12 at 14:47
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    I've reopened as it's normal to give the OP a reasonable time to make a good case for a question. – Joseph Wright Dec 10 '12 at 14:50
  • I've also asked Andrew Stacey to include a canonical answer about launchpad procedure. So we'll see. Maybe it's better to generalize this question to all possible cases in TeX.SX products. – percusse Dec 10 '12 at 14:50
  • Although you're on a Mac, the instructions at http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/73016/86 should still give enough information as to installing a package. – Andrew Stacey Dec 10 '12 at 14:52
  • Have you managed to get it working yet? – Andrew Stacey Dec 10 '12 at 22:41
  • @AndrewStacey: I no longer get the old error message that hobby cannot be found. However, I get the following error when I try to execute Claudio Fiandriano's answer to the question in the first link of my question. !LaTeX Error: Missing \begin{document} … l.29 \fp_gset:Nn \g_hobby_paramc_fp {3-5^.5}/2}

    and the line 29 in the code is: \pgfpathcurveto%

     – Sony Dec 10 '12 at 22:59
  • I just cut-and-pasted Claudio's answer (first code) and it worked fine. I suspect I'd need to see the log file to be able to help further. If you can upload it somewhere and post a link, I'll take a look. – Andrew Stacey Dec 11 '12 at 13:16
  • @AndrewStacey: I still cannot get it to work. It complains about the line 29 in hobby.code.tex file. At this point, I am losing interest in this. :) Do not worry about it. – Sony Dec 16 '12 at 00:43

2 Answers2

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The hobby library is not part of the core TikZ/pgf bundle, hence will not be found in the TikZ CVS. The code is released to CTAN, which means that it will appear in an 'up to date' TeX Live or MiKTeX package manager for 'managed' installation.

If you need to install the package 'by hand', then from CTAN get the necessary files (all the .tex files and the .sty file except hobby_doc.tex). These need to be installed in your local TeX tree, the details of which vary slightly depending on your operating system. For Linux users, we have How do I install an individual package on a Linux system?, which also has some advice useful for TeX Live users on other platforms. Specific instructions for MiKTeX appear in for example Create a local texmf tree in MiKTeX.

One thing to emphasise here (since it is explicitly mentioned in the question) is that, to a large extent, so long as a file is in TeX's search path then where it is in that path is not important (for an exception see Why isn't kpathsea picking up my local version of a file?). For a user texmf tree (as in the question), it is good practice to have some structure and good practice for that structure to reflect the "standard" structure but by no means obligatory.

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Joseph Wright
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  • At least MiKTeX complains, if a suggested directory is not in TDS structure, and refuses to add this to the local roots. – Speravir Dec 12 '12 at 00:31
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The easiest way to keep up with your TeX library is to download the TeX Live Utility. You can find it in several places if you Google it; however, if you download the MacTeXExtras file from the MacTeX website you can find a copy of it there along with some other useful applications for LaTeX. Using the TeX Live Utility you can download, update, remove individual packages from a repository you specify or just use the default. You can also simply update your entire TeX Library at once if you like. Hobby is among the available packages in the list, but is not installed by default, so just highlight it and click install.

Werner
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  • Thanks for the answer. I think my method of installing (described by steps 1-4 above) Hobby is OK. In any case, I followed your steps and reinstalled Hobby. However, I still get the same error message when I try to compile Claudio's code. The problem is, I have lost interest. I will probably try to find a solution by next Hanukkah. – Sony Feb 16 '13 at 14:41
  • I assume this answer satisfies my question as stated even though reason for asking the question is unresolved. Therefore, I accept this answer. – Sony Feb 16 '13 at 15:04