\chapter{Coda}

\section{What I Learned About \LaTeX{} While Creating This Issue}

\subsection{Easy Ways with \textsf{tikz}}

I included some illustrations of card layouts back on page \pageref{cards}. Since these are just rectangles, I knew I could create them pretty easily using the \textsf{tikz} package. All I needed were the coordinates where the three rectangles would begin and end, and the coordinates of the nodes where I would put the letters. 

As it turns out, this was difficult to figure out using my mind alone—there was too much guesswork. I'm a big fan of having the right tools to do a job and then using those tools. I see no point in being a martyr. So I pulled out the best tool I had for this: graph paper and a pencil. No guess work, just straight lines and a bit of counting. I felt like I was in my eighth grade geometry class again, and I actually enjoyed it. 

Protip: draw it on paper first. 

\setlength{\fboxsep}{0pt}
\setlength{\fboxrule}{0.5pt}
\begin{center}
\fbox{\includegraphics[scale=0.30]{tikz-on-paper}}
\end{center}

\subsection{\texttt{include} is Your Friend}

Last time around, I mentioned using \verb|\input{<filename>}| to keep your \LaTeX{} GUI happy. But I've also found that using \verb|\include{<filename>}| keeps \textit{me} happy. Creating this zine means I end up with a very long file (the file for issue \#5 was 1005 lines long!) making it time consuming to constanty scroll through the file to get to the last part I was editing. (It's not terrible in and of itself, but repeatedly having to do it impacts my overall efficiency.) 

For this issue, I decided to write up each chapter as a separate file, and then just \texttt{include} that file into my main document. This makes it much easier to manage, and I do feel more efficient. But because I'm using a GUI (Texmaker) I do have to remember to switch back to my main file when I compile the document. Overall, that's a trade-off I can live with. 

%\newpage % Use only to keep the afterword together if we end up with orphans
\section{Afterword}

\begin{multicols}{2}
\begin{small}
\noindent{}This is the sixth issue of this zine. I originally did this so I could learn how to use \LaTeX{} and also learn more about Linux. I thought I might get one or two issues and that would be the end of it. So when I started doing this, I pushed everything to my git repo at \kref{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the-codex}{https://git.kjodle.net/kjodle/the\\-codex}. 

It looks like this is a thing now, and a single repo just won't work. I'm just over 300 commits in that repo, which doesn't really reveal much about the state of each issue. So, going forward, I'm going to be making commits to a different project on my git repo at \kref{https://git.kjodle.net/the-codex-zine}{https://git.kjodle.net/the-codex-\\zine}. That way, each issue can have its own repository and will eventually come to a logical end, instead of being never ending.

\medskip
\begin{flushright}
\noindent{}Thanks,\\—Ken
\end{flushright}

\end{small}
\end{multicols}