quote environment

quote environment

[Idris S Hamid]

Dear crew,

(Please forgive all the (perhaps) clueless questions: I've had to spend the 
last few months focusing on _content_ in my research as opposed to _form_ so 
I've gotten quite rusty:->)

I have defined a quote environment as follows:

   \startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent
   Some quoted text
   \stopnarrower

I would like to define a more sophisticated \startquote \stopquote with the 
following features:

1. Assuming the quote is within a paragraph and is preceded and succeeded by 
text belonging to that same paragraph, the skips preceding and succeeding 
text should be the same as in the default itemize environment. Assuming 
itemize uses \medskip (how do I find out for sure (aside from digging into 
the code)?), I need the quote environment to do something like;

------------------------------------
Here is some preceding text
\medskip 
%
   \startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent
   Some quoted text
   \stopnarrower
\medskip
%
Here is some succeeding text.
----------------------------------------

2. Assuming the quote is within a paragraph and is preceded and succeeded by 
text belonging to that same paragraph, the succeeding text should NOT be 
indented. viz.

----------------------------------------
Here is some preceding text
%
\startquote
   Some quoted text 
\stopquote
%
Here is some succeeding text that should NOT be indented
-----------------------------------------

3. Assuming the quote is at the _end_ of a paragraph, I need the quote 
environment to do something like;

--------------------------------------
Here is some preceding text
\medskip 
%
   \startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent
   Some quoted text
   \stopnarrower
\medskip

Here is some succeeding text that SHOULD be indented.
--------------------------------------

Note also that the first par in a quote environment should not be indented:

--------------------------------------
Here is some preceding text
%
\startquote

   Some quoted text that should NOT be indented

   Some quoted text  that SHOULD be indented.

\stopquote
%
--------------------------------------

Your help is greatly appreciated!

Best wishes
Idris
-- 
Dr. Idris S Hamid
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523

Re: quote environment

[Bruce D'Arcus]

I sent a note about this a couple of months back; shouldn't what Idris 
(and I earlier) is proposing be standard behavior behavior?  Block 
quotes are generally (though not always) part of a larger paragraph.  
Also, per earlier suggestion, there should be an option not to have 
them enclosed in quote marks.

Bruce

Re: quote environment

[Idris S Hamid]

\definestartstop
  [quote]
  [before={\medskip\startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent},
    after={\stopnarrower\medskip\noindent}]

appears to do what I want. So if I skip a line after the stopquote I get the 
next line indented. Please feel free to make suggestions/improvements to this 
naive definition. For example, will this work after the beginning of a new 
section or will the \medskip add too much space?I still don't know how to 
verify which \skip the itemize environment uses, and I want my startstopquote 
to match the itemize skips.

Best wishes
Idris

> I would like to define a more sophisticated \startquote \stopquote with the
> following features:
>
> 1. Assuming the quote is within a paragraph and is preceded and succeeded
> by text belonging to that same paragraph, the skips preceding and
> succeeding text should be the same as in the default itemize environment.
> Assuming itemize uses \medskip (how do I find out for sure (aside from
> digging into the code)?), I need the quote environment to do something
> like;
>
> ------------------------------------
> Here is some preceding text
> \medskip
> %
>    \startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent
>    Some quoted text
>    \stopnarrower
> \medskip
> %
> Here is some succeeding text.
> ----------------------------------------
>
> 2. Assuming the quote is within a paragraph and is preceded and succeeded
> by text belonging to that same paragraph, the succeeding text should NOT be
> indented. viz.
>
> ----------------------------------------
> Here is some preceding text
> %
> \startquote
>    Some quoted text
> \stopquote
> %
> Here is some succeeding text that should NOT be indented
> -----------------------------------------
>
> 3. Assuming the quote is at the _end_ of a paragraph, I need the quote
> environment to do something like;
>
> --------------------------------------
> Here is some preceding text
> \medskip
> %
>    \startnarrower[2*left,2*right]\noindent
>    Some quoted text
>    \stopnarrower
> \medskip
>
> Here is some succeeding text that SHOULD be indented.
> --------------------------------------
>
> Note also that the first par in a quote environment should not be indented:
>
> --------------------------------------
> Here is some preceding text
> %
> \startquote
>
>    Some quoted text that should NOT be indented
>
>    Some quoted text  that SHOULD be indented.
>
> \stopquote
> %
> --------------------------------------
>
> Your help is greatly appreciated!
>
> Best wishes
> Idris

-- 
Dr. Idris S Hamid
Department of Philosophy
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523