Re: columns(ets) and itemize[columns]

[Alan BRASLAU <alan.braslau@cea.fr>]

On Monday 18 May 2009 08:45:16 Wolfgang Schuster wrote:
> Am 17.05.2009 um 23:31 schrieb Alan BRASLAU:
> > Two questions, first:
> > What is the real difference between columns and columnset?
> > I am a bit confused* about their coexistence. Is this purposeful or
> > necessary
> > (or is it simply historical)? Is \startcolumns simply an unnamed,
> > "default"
> > columnset?
>
> columns and columnset are two different mechanism two produce a document
> with text and two or more columns. the columns mechanism is the older
> one
> with limited control about the placement of figures but allows you to
> mix
> one column and multicolumns text on a page. columnsets are a new version
> of the column mechanism with more control about the placement of figures
> and other features like spanned columns etc. (look at the manual for
> more)
> and is better suited for magazine like layouts (Vit Zyka posted a few
> nice
> examples a few years ago).

Great! This is somewhat what I suspected (columns mechanism is the older one). 
Is there good reason to keep both mechanisms? That is, does the startcolumns 
mechanism have advantages? Can't one mix one column and multicolumns text on a 
page using columnsets?

> > (*and the wiki page needs to be clarified...)
>
> the wiki is from users for users, feel free to correct the articles

Of course, as soon as I feel that I understand the subject.

> > Second question, maybe a bug?
> > \startitemize[columns] does not interact well:
> > I suspect that it could or should use paragraphs internally rather
> > than
> > columns so as to work within a column(set).
>
> that's a limitation in tex, when you use the 'columns' key for itemize
> the items are typeset with a \startcolumns / \stopcolumns before and
> after the environment and you can nest columns /columnset environments
> (a tex limitation) but in normal one column text this is not the case
> and you can use multicolumn items in most cases but you can
>
> \startcolumns
> \startsimplecolumns
> \startitemize
> \item one
> \item two
> ...
> \stopitemize
> \stopsimplecolumns
> \stopcolumns

page-mul.tex
...
%D Undocumented and still under development.
\def\startsimplecolumns
...

May I suggest that \startitemize[columns] internally use such a mechanism, 
perhaps when under a columns or columnset environment. Of course, this may be 
a bit tricky according to the following remark:

> (in a few cases streamlayer are necessary, e.g. within framedtext)

Indeed!
Inside framed text I used paragraphs to manually typset into columns; now I 
get to learn about streamlayers...

Alan

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