4.30.1 Top new questions this week

4.30.1.1 \text vs \scalebox

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=446413

The author of a manuscript I'm editing is using the \medcup macro in the MWE below. We've noticed the scaling it totally off if used inside the \text command. Can anyone explain why? 
... 
[graphics] [amsmath]
 

asked by daleif https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=3929 16 votes

answered by Circumscribe https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=156366 10 votes

4.30.1.2 Why doesn't LaTeX compile faster?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=447197

Looking at what computers can do when it comes to presenting graphics (think games, graphical user interfaces, and so forth), it almost comes of as a surprise to me that I often have to wait for  ... 
[performance] [tex-general]
 

asked by Speldosa https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=3555 15 votes

answered by TeXnician https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=124577 23 votes

4.30.1.3 compiling pdftex 2.2 seconds with 2012 vs 29 seconds with 2018 version

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=446372

I'm not quite sure where to start looking to fix this. I have recently migrated from an old Ubuntu 14.04 box using texlive/2012 to an 18.04 box running texlive-2018. 
old box 
pdfTeX  ... 
[pdftex] [performance]
                                                                                  

                                                                                  
 

asked by patrick-davey https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=168590 12 votes

answered by patrick-davey https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=168590 11 votes

4.30.1.4 Why are the standard document classes not being developed further?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=447184

I don't know whether this question has a clear answer, but I was unable to find anything about this on Google, so here goes. 
Despite the emergence of "rich" document classes like KOMA-Script or  ... 
[memoir] [koma-script] [document-classes] [article] [scrbook]
 

asked by Daniel Steck https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=168903 12 votes

answered by Joseph Wright https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=73 17 votes

4.30.1.5 How can I define a command that uses round parentheses around its arguments?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=446677

I defined a command for probability distributions, for example: 
\usepackage{amsmath} 
\usepackage{xstring} 
\DeclarePairedDelimiterX{\RoundBrackets}[1]{(}{)}{#1} 
... 
[macros] [parentheses]
 

asked by danijar https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=61219 11 votes

answered by Werner https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=5764 15 votes

4.30.1.6 Fill the area between two curves

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=447265

Hi I am trying to fill the area between two curves. One curve is two joined arcs, and the other is one freehand curve. The part I want to fill is the white area. I use the fillbetween library but I  ... 
[tikz-pgf] [fillbetween]
 

asked by noir https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=38083 10 votes

answered by marmot https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=121799 13 votes

4.30.1.7 How to draw the following diagram (a wedge of cheese) using pgfplots or tikz?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=446512

I would like to draw the diagram below using either pgfplots or tikz. 
I am able to draw a cylinder, using the pgfplots manual, but I don't know how to draw a fraction of a cylinder. 
[tikz-pgf] [3d]
 

asked by Anthony Macks https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=139146 10 votes

answered by marmot https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=121799 18 votes