Re: quote environment

[Idris S Hamid <ishamid@attbi.com>]

\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