[Tex/LaTex] Converting a Nomenclature Example to Use Glossaries

glossariesnomenclature

I am hoping to get pointers for how to convert this example to use the glossaries package:

How to achieve nomenclature entries like: symbol, Description, Dimension and unit, etc?

The aforementioned post is exactly what I want, but I prefer glossaries as it is built-in to the wrapper I use (Latexian) to generate the pdf.

What steps would I need to take to 'rewrite' this?

Edit:
MWE Layout, but non-working code:

Nomenclature

Acronyms
Symbol  Description     % no Dimensions and Units 
EVRA    Euler Vector Rotation Angle
...

Greek Symbols
Symbol  Description             Dimensions     Units
alpha    angle of attack        1 or (-)       radians                 
...

Roman Symbols
Symbol  Description             Dimensions     Units
S       Surface area vector     L^2            m^2
...

Superscripts
Symbol  Description     % no Dimensions and Units 
b       bottom surface 
...

Dimensionless Numbers
Symbol  Description     Definition
Re      reynolds number  equation
...

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{longtable}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage[acronym]{glossaries}
etc.

\newcommands % make it easy to add each type of nomenclature

\makeglossaries
\begin{document}
 bunch of stuff \superscript[A]{\(A\)}{a dimensionless coefficient}{--}{1}

 more stuff \acronym[EVRA]{\(EVRA\)}{Euler Vector Rotation Angle}

 \printglossary[title=Nomenclature]

\end{document}

Best Answer

The way I would tackle this:

I would create keys for the new types of columns to be created
I would define the terns for the various types of nomenclature
Print the specific glossaries
Ensure your command line compile sequence has the additional makeindex calls
Create a custom style for your glossary components, and use the newly created field keys to insert the information such as units, definitions, and dimensions.
Recognize when you can reuse these styles
Pay attention to the definitions of first={} in the \newglossaryentry{} because if it is absent, only the name will be used (possibly desired), but watch the result of this formatting carefully in your final document.

Comment/Note: I haven't explored how this solution would change when not exclusively the \gls{} commands in your tex. I prefer to use the \gls{} everywhere even though there is an acronym command already defined. I find this gives me flexibility when the glossary entry is being bounced around different types of glossaries.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{longtable,floatrow,booktabs}
\usepackage{siunitx,microtype,textcomp,textgreek}
\usepackage[nogroupskip,toc,indexonlyfirst]{glossaries}


%=============================================================================
%   G L O S S A R Y   S E T U P
%=============================================================================


\glsaddkey
{unit}          % new key
{\relax}        % default value if "unit" isn't used in \newglossaryentry
{\glsentryunit} % analogous to \glsentrytext
{\Glsentryunit} % analogous to \Glsentrytext
{\glsunit}      % analogous to \glstext
{\Glsunit}      % analogous to \Glstext
{\GLSunit}      % analogous to \GLStext

\glsaddkey
{dimension}     % new key
{\relax}            % default value if "dimension" isn't used in \newglossaryentry
{\glsentrydim}      % analogous to \glsentrytext
{\Glsentrydim}      % analogous to \Glsentrytext
{\glsdim}           % analogous to \glstext
{\Glsdim}           % analogous to \Glstext
{\GLSdim}           % analogous to \GLStext

\glsaddkey
{def}       % new key
{\relax}            % default value if "prerequisite" isn't used in \newglossaryentry
{\glsentrydef}      % analogous to \glsentrytext
{\Glsentrydef}      % analogous to \Glsentrytext
{\glsdef}           % analogous to \glstext
{\Glsdef}           % analogous to \Glstext
{\GLSdef}           % analogous to \GLStext

\newglossary[alg]{acronym}{acr}{acn}{List of Acronyms}% if not using the acronyms package option - can declare it myself
\newglossary[nlgG]{notationGreek}{notG}{ntnG}{Greek Symbols}
\newglossary[nlgR]{notationRoman}{notR}{ntnR}{Roman Symbols}
\newglossary[dnlg]{dimensionlessNumber}{dnt}{dntn}{Dimensionless Numbers}
\newglossary[sslg]{superscript}{sst}{sstn}{Superscripts}

% please note these should be accompanied by command line calls to makeindex eg:

% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.glg"  -o "main.gls"  "main.glo"
% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.alg"  -o "main.acr"  "main.acn"
% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.nlgG" -o "main.notG" "main.ntnG"
% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.nlgR" -o "main.notR" "main.ntnR"
% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.dnlg" -o "main.dnt"  "main.dntn"
% "%MikTexPath%makeindex.exe" -s "main.ist" -t "main.sslg" -o "main.sst"  "main.sstn"


%==================================================================================================================================================================

%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/78016/questions-regarding-conversion-from-acronym-package-to-glossaries
%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/71549/how-can-i-repeat-the-header-but-not-the-caption-with-longtable
%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/8946/how-to-combine-acronym-and-glossary
%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/26563/problems-with-glossaries-package-see-attribute

%http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/126323/glossaries-list-only-page-number-of-the-first-occurrence

%\renewcommand*{\glspostdescription}{}%removes dot at end

\floatsetup[table]{style=ruled,
    objectset=raggedright,
    margins=raggedright,
    midcode=captionskip,
    captionskip=10pt}

\newglossarystyle{custom_acronyms}
{
    \setglossarystyle{long3colheader}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%

        %\toprule
        Symbol & Description 
        \tabularnewline
        \midrule
        \endhead

        %\bottomrule
        \endfoot
    }%
    \setlength\glsdescwidth{.4\textwidth}%
    \setlength\glspagelistwidth{.95\textwidth}%
    \renewcommand{\glossentry}[2]{\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} & \glossentrydesc{##1}
        \tabularnewline
    }%
}

\newglossarystyle{custom_symbols}
{
    \setglossarystyle{long4colheader}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%

        %\toprule
        Symbol & Description & Dimensions & Units
        \tabularnewline
        \midrule
        \endhead

        %\bottomrule
        \endfoot
    }%
    \setlength\glsdescwidth{.4\textwidth}%
    \setlength\glspagelistwidth{.95\textwidth}%
    \renewcommand{\glossentry}[2]{\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} & \glossentrydesc{##1} & \glsentrydim{##1} & \glsentryunit{##1} 
        \tabularnewline
    }%
}

\newglossarystyle{custom_dimlessnum}
{
    \setglossarystyle{long3colheader}%
    \renewcommand*{\glossaryheader}{%

        %\toprule
        Symbol & Description & Definition
        \tabularnewline
        \midrule
        \endhead

        %\bottomrule
        \endfoot
    }%
    \setlength\glsdescwidth{.4\textwidth}%
    \setlength\glspagelistwidth{.95\textwidth}%
    \renewcommand{\glossentry}[2]{\glsentryitem{##1}\glstarget{##1}{\glossentryname{##1}} & \glossentrydesc{##1} & \glsentrydef{##1}
        \tabularnewline
    }%
}

%==================================================================================================================================================================



\newglossaryentry{EVRA}{ type={acronym}, sort={EVRA},  name={EVRA}, short={EVRA}, long={Euler Vector Rotation Angle}, first={Euler Vector Rotation Angle (EVRA)}, description={Euler Vector Rotation Angle} }

\newglossaryentry{EVA}{ type={acronym}, sort={EVA},  name={EVA}, short={EVA}, long={Extra Vehicular Activity}, first={Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA)}, description={Extra Vehicular Activity} }

\newglossaryentry{angle of attack}{ type={notationGreek}, name={\textalpha}, first={angle of attack (\textalpha)}, description={angle of attack}, dimension={1 or (-)}, unit={radians} }

\newglossaryentry{SAvector}{ type={notationRoman}, name={S},description={Surface area vector}, first={surface area vector (S)}, dimension={\si{L^2}}, unit={\si{m^2}}}

\newglossaryentry{bS}{ type={superscript}, name={bS},description={bottom surface} }

\newglossaryentry{Re}{ type={dimensionlessNumber}, name={Re}, description={reynolds nummber}, def={math mode equation } }


\makeglossaries
\begin{document}
    \noindent
    Begin document:

    First example is of an acronym:  Could call \gls{EVRA} and we would see the expansion.  \Gls{EVRA} again yields just the abbreviation.  Another acronym is \gls{EVA}
    \medskip

    Example of a greek symbol with dimensions and units \gls{angle of attack}
    \medskip

    Roman symbol example:  \gls{SAvector}, and \gls{SAvector}
    \medskip

    Superscript examble \gls{bS} (if included in the formula with the gls command, the  glossary can hyperlink to the use and automate the population of your superscript list )
    \medskip

    Dimensionless number such as reynolds number \gls{Re}


    \printglossary[type=acronym,style=custom_acronyms]
    \printglossary[type=notationGreek,style=custom_symbols]
    \printglossary[type=notationRoman,style=custom_symbols]
    \printglossary[type=superscript,style=custom_acronyms]
    \printglossary[type=dimensionlessNumber,style=custom_dimlessnum]
    %\printglossary[type=main]

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to make glossaries and nomenclature work together

My advice is to get rid of nomencl package and use glossaries at its full power. I assume that the sense of this question is to have both a list of equations and a glossary in the document, whatever tool is used.

In fact, with glossaries, one can define as many glossaries as he wants: a simple glossary, a list of acronyms, a list of symbols and so on.

Instead of using the nomencl package, you can define a new glossary (I know the name is misleading, but that's how lists of terms are referred to in the package documentation; you can name your list as you prefer) with the following command:

\newglossary{equations}{equ}{eqn}{List of Equations}

where: equations is the type of the glossary entry, in order to distinguish it from an ordinary glossary entry; equ and eqn are file extensions for auxiliary files; List of Equations is the title of your list, as it will be printed in the table of contents and in the text.

To define an entry to be added to this list, use the glossaries command:

\newglossaryentry{sml}{type=equations,name={$\nabla B = 0$},description={Second Maxwell's Law}}

Note the value assigned to the key: type=equations; if you don't specify it, it will be added to the main glossary.

To have the glossaries printed, you have to put \printglossaries in your document backmatter/frontmatter, and run makeglossaries from command line on your root .tex file.

[Tex/LaTex] Difference between a nomenclature section and a glossary

Technically, they are quite similar. But they seem to have somewhat different purposes.

I believe a glossary should contain domain-specific terms that are not ambiguous but, rather, likely to be unknown to the reader. It should convey a general meaning of these terms.

A nomenclature, on the other hand, should show the reader how your particular document (formally) defines notations, terms and symbols that are ambiguous in general. This is particularly useful for scientific papers. Papers in mathematics or computer science, for example, depend heavily on exact definitions of e.g. the + operator or the letter \gamma. They are also notorious for each having their own interpretation of otherwise generic terms like 'asymmetric' (math), 'strongly typed' (computer science) or 'kingdom' (politics, biology).

I'm not sure about all this (not being a linguist), but my intuition is based on the meaning of the words glossary (terms that are either newly introduced, uncommon, or specialized) and nomenclature (assigning of a word or phrase to a particular object, event, or property), as well as the kinds of features offered by these packages. For example, nomenclature packages often offer special support for mathematical symbols while glossary packages are more likely to offer multi-lingual support.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to make glossaries and nomenclature work together

[Tex/LaTex] Difference between a nomenclature section and a glossary

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