balancing columns with little formatted entries

balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Ed L. Cashin]

I'm using two-column mode to format a directory with entries that are
set up as vboxes.  I'm finding that the columns often turn out
unbalanced, and I suspect that perhaps my code is not high-level
enough.  

I'm interested in making sure that any given entry on the page is not
ever split between pages, so a vbox seems OK, but then, it's not
working as I expected.

Rather than post a large amount of code to show how multiple pages
look, I've put several files at this URL:

        http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/temp

Basically, I try to use rubber vertical glue between the vboxes to
ensure that TeX will expand the vertical space between the vboxes so
that the columns might be balanced easily.

-- 
--Ed Cashin							
  ecashin@coe.uga.edu

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Hans Hagen]

> Rather than post a large amount of code to show how multiple pages
> look, I've put several files at this URL:
> 
>         http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/temp

I'll have a look. Sorry for the delay but we were at eurotex. 

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

context on miktex

[Hans Hagen]

Hi Walter,

> I apologize for your time since this is a small matter. I have been
> using AMS-LaTeX on UNIX for years and now using MiKTeX\WinEdt. I've
> recently discovered ConTeXT (and pdfTeX and MetaPost) and would like to
> try it out. However, I'm having difficulty getting first of all getting
> it properly installed (how can I tell?) and getting started as a user.
> Do you have any advice or pointers to comprehensive installation and
> user's manual? [I have ActivePerl.]

There are several miktex users on the context list, so I cc this mail
them. 

I still have to update the readme/installation files, but given that you
have tex running, installation should not be that hard. 

(1) make sure you can run texexec from any path (by using a bat file or
the runperl.exe launch program)

(2) rename texexec.rme to texexec.ini, enable the miktex section, make
sure the ini is in the same path as texexec (not needed when using
web2c), check the miktex path definitions in the ini file. 

(3) say: texexec --make to generate a format (--verbose gives a bit more
info)

after that you should be able to run context. 

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Ed L. Cashin]

Back in September, I asked about balancing a two-column series of
entries in a directory.  Hans suggested a solution that used the grid
feature in context.

Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> writes:

> See attached file 

[attached file simple.tex contents follow]
...
> \setuplayout
>   [grid=yes]
> 
> % and 
> 
> \setuphead
>   [subsection]
>   [number=no,style=bold,command=\Example,
>    before=\blank,after=\blank]

... and for formatting the subsection head:

> \def\Example#1#2%
>   {\hbox to \hsize
>      {\vrule width 1em height .6ex depth -.5ex 
>       \quad\strut#2\quad
>       \leaders\vrule height .6ex depth -.5ex\hfill}}
...
> %         #1:	last name           #5:   email
> %         #2:	first name	    #6:   dept
> %         #3:	phone number	    #7:   room
> %         #4:	position
> 
> \def\fsdhcentry#1#2#3#4#5#6#7%
>   {\snaptogrid\vbox
>      {\forgetall
>       \bf 
>       \strut\uppercase{#1},\space#2\space\dotfill\ #3\par
>       \tfx
>       \strut\quad#4\hfill#5\par
>       \strut\quad#6\hfill#7}}

That produces output that looks better than before using the grid.
However, while the entries are lining up with the grid, the
"subsectionhead"s are not.  That means that the bottom of the page
will sometimes have unbalanced columns; namely, on pages that have
subsectionheads. 

Here is a pdf that shows how on pages that have subsectionheads two
vboxes across from one another snap to different lines on the grid:

    http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/temp/fsdhc-grid1.pdf

(Page nine, for example.)

I thought that I would solve the problem by putting both the entries
and the subsectionheads into vboxes of equal height.  That way, all
the vboxes across from one another would snap to the same line.  It
looks promising, but when I try to put the subsectionhead in a vbox of
"entryheight" and snap it to the grid, I get errors about missing
braces. 

I feel like I'm on the right track (getting vboxes of equal height to
line up), although I worry about what will happen if one of the boxes
has to be bigger than entryheight.

I'm not sure why it is failing, though.  Here's a simplified
demonstration what I'm trying:

\setupwhitespace	[halfline]
\setupbodyfont		[10pt]
\setuplayout		[grid=yes]

\setuphead	[section]
		[number=no,style=\bfb,textcommand=\BoxedSection,
		 before=\blank,after=\blank,header=high,footer=section,
		 page=yes]
\setuphead	[subsection]
		[number=no,style=bold,textcommand=,command=\RuleSubsection]

\def\entryheight{2cm}

\def\BoxedSection#1%
  {\framed[width=broad,height=1cm,corner=round]{#1}}

\def\RuleSubsection#1#2%
  {\snaptogrid
  \vbox to \entryheight{%
  \forgetall
  \vfil
  \hbox to \hsize{%
   {\vrule width 1em height .6ex depth -.5ex 
      \quad\strut#2\quad
      \leaders\vrule height .6ex depth -.5ex\hfill}}}}

%         #1:	last name           #5:   email
%         #2:	first name	    #6:   dept
%         #3:	phone number	    #7:   room
%         #4:	position
\def\fsdhcentry#1#2#3#4#5#6#7%
  {\snaptogrid\vbox to \entryheight
     {\forgetall
      \bf 
      \strut\uppercase{#1},\space#2\space\dotfill\ #3\par
      \tfx
      \strut\quad#4\hfill#5\par
      \strut\quad#6\hfill#7\blank[small]\vfil}}

\starttext

\section{College of Education Personnel}

\startcolumns
% \input personnel

% % personnel.tex consists of many entries like this:

\subsection{Z}

\fsdhcentry{Zeitler}%
	  {William R.}%
	  {}%
	  {}%
	  {wzeitler@coe.uga.edu}%
	  {Sci. Ed.}%
	  {}%

\fsdhcentry{Zepeda}%
	  {Sally .}%
	  {}%
	  {}%
	  {szepeda@coe.uga.edu}%
	  {Educational Leadership}%
	  {}%

\stopcolumns 

\stoptext

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     PGP public key:
  ecashin@coe.uga.edu           http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/pgp/

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Hans Hagen]

Just a remark: 

>\fsdhcentry{Zepeda}%
>	  {Sally .}%
>	  {}%
>	  {}%
>	  {szepeda@coe.uga.edu}%
>	  {Educational Leadership}%
>	  {}%

No %'s needed here. Looks better and saves typing.  

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Hans Hagen]

At 12:53 PM 11/15/99 -0500, Ed L. Cashin wrote:

>Back in September, I asked about balancing a two-column series of
>entries in a directory.  Hans suggested a solution that used the grid
>feature in context.

I'll send you an alternative. Gridsnapping is a rather tricky thing and in order to get your own macros working, one needs to be aware of when tex inserts whitespace, breaks and so. Unless others long to hear those details, I'll handle this beyond the list.  

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Ed L. Cashin]

Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> writes:

> Just a remark: 
> 
> >\fsdhcentry{Zepeda}%
> >	  {Sally .}%
> >	  {}%
> >	  {}%
> >	  {szepeda@coe.uga.edu}%
> >	  {Educational Leadership}%
> >	  {}%
> 
> No %'s needed here. Looks better and saves typing.  

Oops!  You've said that before.  What is the rule that makes it OK to
leave out the percent signs there?  Intuitively, I imagine that for
the case:

      \foo{bar} {baz}

... foo sees the tokens "bar", " ", "baz"; but that is not the case.

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     PGP public key:
  ecashin@coe.uga.edu           http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/pgp/

Re: balancing columns with little formatted entries

[Hans Hagen]

At 09:47 AM 11/16/99 -0500, Ed L. Cashin wrote:

>> No %'s needed here. Looks better and saves typing.  
>
>Oops!  You've said that before.  What is the rule that makes it OK to
>leave out the percent signs there?  Intuitively, I imagine that for
>the case:
>
>      \foo{bar} {baz}
>
>... foo sees the tokens "bar", " ", "baz"; but that is not the case.

You only need %'s in macros, and then only in situations where tex stops reading: 

\def\something#1%         otherwise tex wants a space as delimiter
  {...}

\count4=123               tex sees the space as end of number

\ifdim\dimen0=10pt        idem dimension 

\somemacro 
  {a} 
  {b} 
  {c}%                    only after the last one, only in hmode  

\ifnum\count2=456%
  789                     is actually wrong! 

\ifnum\count2=456         is ok 
  789 

in normal cases no % is needed after any \abc since the space stops the scanner

etc etc 

In a context text you seldom need %'s. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------