Alternate ACM SIG Proceedings Paper in LaTeX Format∗

†
[Extended Abstract]
‡ § ¶
Ben Trovato G.K.M. Tobin Lars Thørväld
Institute for Clarity in Institute for Clarity in The Thørväld Group
Documentation Documentation 1 Thørväld Circle
1932 Wallamaloo Lane P.O. Box 1212 Hekla, Iceland
Wallamaloo, New Zealand Dublin, Ohio 43017-6221 larst@affiliation.org
trovato@corporation.com webmaster@marysville-
ohio.com

ABSTRACT D.2.8 [Software Engineering]: Metrics—complexity mea-

This paper provides a sample of a LAT sures, performance measures
EX document which
conforms, somewhat loosely, to the formatting guidelines for
ACM SIG Proceedings. It is an alternate style which pro- General Terms
duces a tighter-looking paper and was designed in response Theory
to concerns expressed, by authors, over page-budgets. It
complements the document Author’s (Alternate) Guide to
Preparing ACM SIG Proceedings Using LATEX2 and BibTEX. Keywords
This source file has been written with the intention of being ACM proceedings, LATEX, text tagging
compiled under LATEX2 and BibTeX.
The developers have tried to include every imaginable sort 1. INTRODUCTION
of “bells and whistles”, such as a subtitle, footnotes on ti-
The proceedings are the records of a conference. ACM
tle, subtitle and authors, as well as in the text, and every
seeks to give these conference by-products a uniform, high-
optional component (e.g. Acknowledgments, Additional Au-
quality appearance. To do this, ACM has some rigid require-
thors, Appendices), not to mention examples of equations,
ments for the format of the proceedings documents: there
theorems, tables and figures.
is a specified format (balanced double columns), a specified
To make best use of this sample document, run it through
set of fonts (Arial or Helvetica and Times Roman) in cer-
LATEX and BibTeX, and compare this source code with the
tain specified sizes (for instance, 9 point for body copy), a
printed output produced by the dvi file. A compiled PDF
specified live area (18 × 23.5 cm [7” × 9.25”]) centered on
version is available on the web page to help you with the
the page, specified size of margins (1.9 cm [0.75”]) top, (2.54
‘look and feel’.
cm [1”]) bottom and (1.9 cm [.75”]) left and right; speci-
fied column width (8.45 cm [3.33”]) and gutter size (.83 cm
Categories and Subject Descriptors [.33”]).
H.4 [Information Systems Applications]: Miscellaneous; The good news is, with only a handful of manual settings1 ,
the LATEX document class file handles all of this for you.
∗(Produces the permission block, and copyright informa- The remainder of this document is concerned with show-
tion). For use with SIG-ALTERNATE.CLS. Supported by ing, in the context of an “actual” document, the LATEX com-
ACM. mands specifically available for denoting the structure of a
†A full version of this paper is available as Author’s Guide to proceedings paper, rather than with giving rigorous descrip-
Preparing ACM SIG Proceedings Using LATEX2 and BibTeX tions or explanations of such commands.
at www.acm.org/eaddress.htm
‡Dr. Trovato insisted his name be first.
2. THE BODY OF THE PAPER
§The secretary disavows any knowledge of this author’s ac-
Typically, the body of a paper is organized into a hier-
tions. archical structure, with numbered or unnumbered headings
¶This author is the one who did all the really hard work.
for sections, subsections, sub-subsections, and even smaller
sections. The command \section that precedes this para-
graph is part of such a hierarchy.2 LATEX handles the num-
1
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for Two of these, the \numberofauthors and \alignau-
personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are thor commands, you have already used; another, \bal-
not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies ancecolumns, will be used in your very last run of LATEX
bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to to ensure balanced column heights on the last page.
2
republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific This is the second footnote. It starts a series of three foot-
permission and/or a fee. notes that add nothing informational, but just give an idea
WOODSTOCK ’97 El Paso, Texas USA of how footnotes work and look. It is a wordy one, just so
Copyright 20XX ACM X-XXXXX-XX-X/XX/XX ...$15.00. you see how a longish one plays out.
bering and placement of these headings for you, when you
use the appropriate heading commands around the titles of Table 1: Frequency of Special Characters
the headings. If you want a sub-subsection or smaller part Non-English or Math Frequency Comments
to be unnumbered in your output, simply append an aster- Ø 1 in 1,000 For Swedish names
isk to the command name. Examples of both numbered and π 1 in 5 Common in math
unnumbered headings will appear throughout the balance of $ 4 in 5 Used in business
this sample document. Ψ21 1 in 40,000 Unexplained usage
Because the entire article is contained in the document
environment, you can indicate the start of a new paragraph
with a blank line in your input file; that is why this sentence equation:
forms a separate paragraph. ∞
X
x+1
2.1 Type Changes and Special Characters i=0

We have already seen several typeface changes in this sam- and follow it with another numbered equation:
ple. You can indicate italicized words or phrases in your ∞ Z π+2
text with the command \textit; emboldening with the com-
X
xi = f (2)
mand \textbf and typewriter-style (for instance, for com- i=0 0
puter code) with \texttt. But remember, you do not have
to indicate typestyle changes when such changes are part just to demonstrate LATEX’s able handling of numbering.
of the structural elements of your article; for instance, the 2.3 Citations
heading of this subsection will be in a sans serif3 typeface,
Citations to articles [1, 3, 2, 4], conference proceedings [3]
but that is handled by the document class file. Take care
or books [6, 5] listed in the Bibliography section of your arti-
with the use of4 the curly braces in typeface changes; they
cle will occur throughout the text of your article. You should
mark the beginning and end of the text that is to be in the
use BibTeX to automatically produce this bibliography; you
different typeface.
simply need to insert one of several citation commands with
You can use whatever symbols, accented characters, or
a key of the item cited in the proper location in the .tex
non-English characters you need anywhere in your docu-
file [5]. The key is a short reference you invent to uniquely
ment; you can find a complete list of what is available in
identify each work; in this sample document, the key is the
the LATEX User’s Guide[5].
first author’s surname and a word from the title. This iden-
2.2 Math Equations tifying key is included with each item in the .bib file for
your article.
You may want to display math equations in three distinct
The details of the construction of the .bib file are beyond
styles: inline, numbered or non-numbered display. Each of
the scope of this sample document, but more information
the three are discussed in the next sections.
can be found in the Author’s Guide, and exhaustive details
2.2.1 Inline (In-text) Equations in the LATEX User’s Guide[5].
This article shows only the plainest form of the citation
A formula that appears in the running text is called an
command, using \cite. This is what is stipulated in the
inline or in-text formula. It is produced by the math envi-
SIGS style specifications. No other citation format is en-
ronment, which can be invoked with the usual \begin. .
dorsed or supported.
.\end construction or with the short form $. . .$. You
can use any of the symbols and structures, from α to ω, avail- 2.4 Tables
able in LATEX[5]; this section will simply show a few examples
Because tables cannot be split across pages, the best place-
of in-text equations in context. Notice how this equation:
ment for them is typically the top of the page nearest their
limn→∞ x = 0, set here in in-line math style, looks slightly
initial cite. To ensure this proper “floating” placement of
different when set in display style. (See next section).
tables, use the environment table to enclose the table’s con-
2.2.2 Display Equations tents and the table caption. The contents of the table itself
must go in the tabular environment, to be aligned properly
A numbered display equation – one set off by vertical
in rows and columns, with the desired horizontal and verti-
space from the text and centered horizontally – is produced
cal rules. Again, detailed instructions on tabular material
by the equation environment. An unnumbered display
is found in the LATEX User’s Guide.
equation is produced by the displaymath environment.
Immediately following this sentence is the point at which
Again, in either environment, you can use any of the sym-
Table 1 is included in the input file; compare the placement
bols and structures available in LATEX; this section will just
of the table here with the table in the printed dvi output of
give a couple of examples of display equations in context.
this document.
First, consider the equation, shown as an inline equation
To set a wider table, which takes up the whole width
above:
of the page’s live area, use the environment table* to en-
lim x = 0 (1) close the table’s contents and the table caption. As with a
n→∞
single-column table, this wide table will “float” to a location
Notice how it is formatted somewhat differently in the dis- deemed more desirable. Immediately following this sentence
playmath environment. Now, we’ll enter an unnumbered is the point at which Table 2 is included in the input file;
3 again, it is instructive to compare the placement of the ta-
A third footnote, here. Let’s make this a rather short one
to see how it looks. ble here with the table in the printed dvi output of this
4
A fourth, and last, footnote. document.
 Table 2: Some Typical Commands
Command A Number Comments
\alignauthor 100 Author alignment
\numberofauthors 200 Author enumeration
\table 300 For tables
\table* 400 For wider tables

the \newdef command:

Definition 1. If z is irrational, then by ez we mean the
unique number which has logarithm z:
Figure 1: A sample black and white graphic (.eps log ez = z
format).
Two lists of constructs that use one of these forms is given
in the Author’s Guidelines.
There is one other similar construct environment, which
is already set up for you; i.e. you must not use a \newdef
command to create it: the proof environment. Here is a
example of its use:
Proof. Suppose on the contrary there exists a real num-
ber L such that
f (x)
Figure 2: A sample black and white graphic (.eps lim = L.
x→∞ g(x)
format) that has been resized with the epsfig com-
mand. Then
 
f (x) f (x)
l = lim f (x) = lim gx · = lim g(x)· lim = 0·L = 0,
2.5 Figures x→c x→c g(x) x→c x→c g(x)

Like tables, figures cannot be split across pages; the best which contradicts our assumption that l 6= 0.
placement for them is typically the top or the bottom of
the page nearest their initial cite. To ensure this proper Complete rules about using these environments and using
“floating” placement of figures, use the environment figure the two different creation commands are in the Author’s
to enclose the figure and its caption. Guide; please consult it for more detailed instructions. If
This sample document contains examples of .eps and .ps you need to use another construct, not listed therein, which
files to be displayable with LATEX. More details on each of you want to have the same formatting as the Theorem or
these is found in the Author’s Guide. the Definition[6] shown above, use the \newtheorem or the
As was the case with tables, you may want a figure that \newdef command, respectively, to create it.
spans two columns. To do this, and still to ensure proper A Caveat for the TEX Expert
“floating” placement of tables, use the environment figure*
to enclose the figure and its caption. and don’t forget to end Because you have just been given permission to use the
the environment with figure*, not figure! \newdef command to create a new form, you might think
Note that either .ps or .eps formats are used; use the you can use TEX’s \def to create a new command: Please
\epsfig or \psfig commands as appropriate for the differ- refrain from doing this! Remember that your LATEX source
ent file types. code is primarily intended to create camera-ready copy, but
may be converted to other forms – e.g. HTML. If you in-
2.6 Theorem-like Constructs advertently omit some or all of the \defs recompilation will
Other common constructs that may occur in your article be, to say the least, problematic.
are the forms for logical constructs like theorems, axioms,
corollaries and proofs. There are two forms, one produced by 3. CONCLUSIONS
the command \newtheorem and the other by the command This paragraph will end the body of this sample docu-
\newdef; perhaps the clearest and easiest way to distinguish ment. Remember that you might still have Acknowledg-
them is to compare the two in the output of this sample ments or Appendices; brief samples of these follow. There is
document: still the Bibliography to deal with; and we will make a dis-
This uses the theorem environment, created by the claimer about that here: with the exception of the reference
\newtheorem command: to the LATEX book, the citations in this paper are to articles
Theorem 1. Let f be continuous on [a, b]. If G is an which have nothing to do with the present subject and are
antiderivative for f on [a, b], then used as examples only.
Z b
f (t)dt = G(b) − G(a). 4. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
a This section is optional; it is a location for you to acknowl-
The other uses the definition environment, created by edge grants, funding, editing assistance and what have you.
 Figure 3: A sample black and white graphic (.eps format) that needs to span two columns of text.

In the present case, for example, the authors would like to

thank Gerald Murray of ACM for his help in codifying this
Author’s Guide and the .cls and .tex files that it describes.

5. REFERENCES
[1] M. Bowman, S. K. Debray, and L. L. Peterson.
Reasoning about naming systems. ACM Trans.
Program. Lang. Syst., 15(5):795–825, November 1993.
[2] J. Braams. Babel, a multilingual style-option system
for use with latex’s standard document styles.
TUGboat, 12(2):291–301, June 1991.
[3] M. Clark. Post congress tristesse. In TeX90 Conference
Proceedings, pages 84–89. TeX Users Group, March
1991.
[4] M. Herlihy. A methodology for implementing highly
concurrent data objects. ACM Trans. Program. Lang.
Syst., 15(5):745–770, November 1993.
[5] L. Lamport. LaTeX User’s Guide and Document
Reference Manual. Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1986.
[6] S. Salas and E. Hille. Calculus: One and Several
Variable. John Wiley and Sons, New York, 1978.