LaTeX idioms

Converting TikZ pictures to `.ps` files

The following is based on this note by Michael Goerz. There are a few steps:

In a latex file say fig-generator.tex make your tikzpicture (call it by any name, here we use fig-name) inside a pgfgraphicnamed environment as follows:
```
\beginpgfgraphicnamed{fig-name}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        ...
        ;
    \end{tikzpicture}
\endpgfgraphicnamed
```
Next, we compile the latex to create a fig-name.dvi file
```
latex --jobname=fig-name fig-generator.tex
```
Now we convert the dvi file to an eps file:
```
dvips -o fig-name.eps fig-name.dvi
```
Sometimes you will need a ps file instead of an eps file and a simple hack is to just change the file extension using mv (if you want to keep the eps file use cp instead of mv)
```
mv fig-name.eps fig-name.ps
```
In the tex file where you intend to use the ps figure add the following in the header: \usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}. You may have to add the -shell-escape argument to the latexmk command when compiling the tex file where you use the figure. If using VS Code this stackoverflow thread explains how to add shell escape argument to latexmk.