Re: widow and orphan control

[<phthenry@iglou.com>]

From: Vit Zyka <vit.zyka@seznam.cz>
>  >>Hans Hagen wrote (8:53):
> >> Paul Tremblay wrote:
> >>> What I would need is some type of macro that can determine how much
> >>> space is left on the page. If the space is less than some small,
> >>> pretermined amount (say, 24 points, for example), then put the
> title on
> >>> the next page, or put in a \blank[24pt, flexible]
> >>>
> >>> I know nothing about writing macros, or if this is possible. 
> >> 
> >> \testpage[24pt]
> 
> Vit Zyka wrote (11:35):
>  >\penalty50
>  >\vskip3\baselineskip plus1fil
>  >\nobreak
>  >\vskip-3\baselineskip plus-1fil
>  >
>  >It is useful before section title etc. I believe it is implemented to
>  >ConTeXt, but I do not know the interface.
> 
> Whawgh! Hans had answered the question before I sent it. Sorry, my 
> homing pigeon was too lazy... Although Hasselt-to-Prague way in 2.5 hrs
> it is not so bad :)
> 

Actually, no! Both your responses help me out.

Could you explain your snippet of code? I don't quite know what 
the \penalty50 means. I know TeX applies a penalty to each line,
but I'm confused if the penalty is for fitting the line 
horizontally or vertically, or both. 

I know what vskip does, but I'm not sure about the other commands,
or the strategy. Incidently, I do very much want code that acts
on titles for sections and subsections. That is my exact problem 
right now. I believe that ConTeXt will generally handle widows
if they just occur in a regular paragraph.

Hans provided a very useful tidbit in \testpage[24pt], but I'm not 
sure if I should use this in a macro. I have never written a 
macro in TeX before. I was hoping I would not have to write macros,
but maybe I should just learn the basics?

I guess there is a section on macros in the big manual. But that 
is sitting at home next to my computer that has the ConTeXt on it!

Thanks

Paul