Re: Back to sidebars.

["John R. Culleton" <john@wexfordpress.com>]

On Monday 05 December 2005 11:28 am, John R. Culleton wrote:
> Some time back (maybe three years ago) Hans showed me a way to
> create a sidebar, with optional background and hanging out half
> way into the margin. Now I would like to encapsulate the commands
> into a simple \start \stop sequence. But I don't know how to do
> it.
>
> Hans started off with some definitions:
>
> \setupfloat
>    [intermezzo]
>    [leftmargindistance=-\outercombitotal,
>     rightmargindistance=-\outercombitotal,
>     default={outer,high}]
> \setupcaption[intermezzo][location=none]
>
> \defineframedtext
>    [myohmy]
>    [width=6cm,bodyfont=small,
> frame=off,
> backgroundcorner=round,
> backgroundradius=16pt,background=screen,backgroundscreen=.7]
>
>
> Then he called these two definitions with a sequence like:
> (some text)
> \placeintermezzo{}{\startmyohmy\input dawkins \relax\stopmyohmy}
> (some text)
>
> What I would like to do is boil down the last mentioned command
> sequence into
>
> \startsidebar
> (some text)
> \stopsidebar
>
> But I am stumped by the task. If there were a \startintermezzo
> and \stopintermezzo pairing then the task would be simpler.
>
> John Culleton

After writing the above I went back to my roots and came up with
this:

\long\def\sidebar#1{\placeintermezzo{}{\startmyohmy #1 \relax\stopmyohmy}}

...which seems to work. Can anyone find a hole in this method?

Thanks,

John C.