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Xy-pic and Notation for Categorical Diagrams

K. H. Rose

October 20, 1994

Abstract:

This paper discusses textual notation for categorical diagrams based on my experience from developing the Xy-pic package [13,14] for the TeX typesetting system. First I give a short survey of some different such notations that have been used by drawing packages for TeX, categorising each as positional, visual, or conceptual. The last is new so I discuss the conceptual Xy-pic `graph' notation in some detail next. Finally I discuss how orthogonal combination of different notations makes very powerful yet intuitive notation for diagrams possible, and explain how this is realised by Xy-pic such that the code below (to the left) will typeset a pullback diagram (shown to the right):

Note: This paper is written for the category theory community by a theoretical computer scientist. Therefore I have avoided colloquial `we' in favor of personal `you' and `I'.

Keywords: Category theory, diagrams, typesetting, TeX, LaTeX.

NOTE: This document is a hypertext version of a paper presented as an invited talk at ECCT-94. It was generated using LaTeX2HTML.

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