Xy-pic User's Guide

4.3 Further reading

The reference manual [8] describes several more input modes that are useful when the diagram is not organised as a matrix. We'll give some examples of such diagrams but refer to the reference manual for the details.

• The "graph" feature allows input of data structured as directed graphs to make it easy to produce such pictures as
  
  
  

• The "knot" feature allows drawing of mathematical knots and links like

  simple link figure 8-knot cinquefoil

• The "2cell" feature provides special support for categorical twocells like
  
  
  

• The "poly" feature allows polygon-like structures:
  
  
  

• The "web" feature allows composition in lattices such as
  
  
  

• The "arc" feature is suitable for effects like
  
  
  

In each case the figure is produced with relatively few lines using techniques documented in the respective sections of the reference manual together with the details of the Xy-pic kernel and extensions, "arrow," and "matrix" features as used in this guide; further extensions provide support for use of colour, PostScript effects, and much more.

Finally, the following documents might prove useful: How to Typeset Pretty Diagram Arrows with TeX [6] presents some of the design decisions behind Xy-pic, Xy-pic and Notation for Categorical Diagrams [7] explains how the modularity of Xy-pic can be used to obtain complex effects with commutative diagrams, and Typesetting Neural Nets using Xy-pic [4] explains how neural networks can be typeset using the package. Finally, a collection of complex examples is maintained on the Xy-pic home page and the ftp servers discussed above.

 

Xy-pic User's Guide