Re: starting headings at top of column

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Lars Huttar wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've started talking to people in charge about contributing some money
> to this mailing list, or the wiki, or something ... we're certainly
> getting a lot of help from it. Is there an org or project to contribute to?

a few ideas:

- at the tug web page there is a sponsor link ..

https://www.tug.org/donate.html

there you can explicitly sponsor luatex code development (which includes 
mplib); since this project is directly related to context mkiv, support 
will indirectly boost mkiv development (ok, within the limitations of my 
time)

- another option is to sponsor development meetings (e.g. help some 
contributers to context to attend the context conference); there is no 
context link (yet) on the tug page -)

> Anyway, my current challenge is this.
> We have a two-column layout using columnsets. Fairly often, we start a
> new section (within a column... this does not interrupt the flow of
> columns).
> 
> Some constraints we want to fulfill are:
> 
> - Normally we want a little space before each new section heading
>   - Except at the top of a column; can I check whether we're at the top
> of a column and do a conditional \vskip based on that?(*)
> 
> - Avoid orphans: when starting a new section, if there's not enough room
> left in the current column, do a column break before outputting the
> section heading. I've tried \testcolumn[n], but it doesn't seem to work
> right. What are the units of the argument to \testcolumn?
> 
> We also do manual column balancing using \definecolumnset,
> \setupcolumnset, and \setupcolumnsetlines. My concern is, does this
> apply after other layout is performed, so that any test performed above
> (*) regarding position within the column would fail to reflect these
> column balancing adjustments and therefore could give wrong results?
> That could explain why \testcolumn has been behaving in unexpected ways...

columnsets are kind of special:

- strongly grid based (which permits tricky figure placement)
- a regular mvl (which permits most context features)

sometime next year, when we enter the 'opening up luatexs page-builder' 
stage, we can look into enhancing columnsets (i hit some of tex's 
limitations there)

also, when the mvl code is extended i can finish the new mkiv 
spacing/penalty model i'm working on (but first math)

Hans

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                                           Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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