Re: multi-column spread control (was Re: beginner's questions)

[Ed L Cashin <ecashin@coe.uga.edu>]

Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> writes:

> At 11:54 AM 11/13/00 -0500, Ed L Cashin wrote:
...
> >In order for the columns to balance (i.e. have the baselines of their
> >bottom lines line up perfectly) the glue between the vboxes has to be
> >balanced in a sophisticated way.  
> 
> That's called snapping. 

Snapping makes the boxes line up, but I'm talking about something
different: getting the bottoms of the columns to line up.  

When I compile the example you sent I see this kind of thing:

     ------------------
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx |
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     |                |
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     |                |
     | xxxxxx         |
     | xxxxxx         |
     ------------------

The boxes line up, but I am not trying to get the boxes to line up,
just the bottoms of the columns, like this:

     ------------------
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx |
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     |                |
     | xxxxxx         |
     | xxxxxx         |
     |                |
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     | xxxxxx  xxxxxx | 
     ------------------

In this example, it's very ugly, but the point is that the bottoms of
the columns line up.  They can line up because I've made the glue
between the vboxes very stretchable.  

Although the ASCII diagram doesn't show it, the vertical size of the
boxes may change from box to box.

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