Re: Several newbie questions

[Jeff Kingston]

Martin,

> 1) While I was able to created nested lists, I have not found a
> built-in way to do sublists, where @NumberOf would return something
> like "2a" instead of just "a" for the first inner list item. What
> would be the best way to add this behaviour?

My suggestion is to tag both levels and call @NumberOf twice:

    @LI @Tag { outer } {
       ...
       @LI @Tag { inner } ...
    }

and then address@hidden address@hidden inner}.  If you need it a
lot you could write a definition:

    def @NestedNumberOf left x right y { address@hidden address@hidden y} }

and then write {outer @NestedNumberOf inner}.  It's a pity; it would
have been a useful feature, but it's too late to change it now.

When you say "What would be the best way to add this behaviour?",
if you mean changing Lout's definitions, then I can only say that
I'm not sure.  Lout's definitions for sections and subsections
would provide a model, since @NumberOf does return path numbers for
those, but whether that model could be mapped onto the existing code
for lists I don't know.

> 2) Somewhat similar to the sublist problem is a subfigure problem. I
> would like to put several numbered subfigures with their own captions
> inside a figure and be able to refer to them using @NumberOf and get
> something like "1.1a".

Lout does not even have the concept of a sub-figure, so a solution
to this problem is even further away than for lists.

> 3) Multipage figures that are not separated by enough nonfloating
> material tend to interleave to fill available space. Is there a way
> around this?

There are a few options associated with @Figure that might help,
depending on the details.  You could try the @FullPage option,
for example.  Check them out in the User's Guide.  However, it's
an awkward area so don't expect too much.  I routinely move
figures away from their natural anchor points to get what I want
when there are a lot of them - in both LaTeX and in Lout.

> 4) My LaTeX experience made me think that page numbers are supposed to
> be inside margins. Is there an easy way to move page numbers from the
> text area into margins?

With this kind of thing it is much better to just get to like the
way that Lout does it.  IMO you create a lot of unproductive work for
yourself trying for a direct translation from one system to another.
However, if you are really keen you could look up the @Place symbol
and try putting it in the page format setup file options.

> 5) I am somewhat confused that lists do not handle label size
> automatically, when there are tables, that can do that. Would it be
> possible to use similar mechanism for lists or is there something that
> prevents this, like automatic numbering?

Again, it's a question of getting to like what the system gives you.
I designed it this way just because I don't like label widths that vary
from one list to another; I think they look awkward and inconsistent.
I prefer to use drop items, which you can find in the User's Guide.

It turns out that lists put Lout under a surprising amount of stress,
so although it should be possible to enhance the list symbols to make
it an option, following the method used by automatically numbered
aligned equations, it would be a very messy job.

> 6) I like tbl package, but would like to emulate rules from booktabs
> LaTeX package
> +("http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/booktabs/";).
> I can imagine changing spacing and line widths to match \toprule,
> \midrule and \bottomrule, but I have no idea how to do left/right side
> shortening of \cmidline(lr)[]. Is there any way to make horizontal
> rules a bit shorter on one or both sides?

I'm not familiar with the LaTeX package you mention, and I'm not
sure what you are asking for.  If you are trying to avoid having
rules projecting out the side of the table, use

    aformat { @Cell ml { 0i } A | ... | @Cell mr { 0i } F }

This removes the left margin from the first cell and the right
margin from the last cell, so that there is nothing for the
rule to stick out over.

> 7) I see several "search for gap preceding @VSpan failed, using zero"
> error messages, but don't see anything wrong. What is this message
> trying to tell me?

Spanning rows and columns lie at Lout's outer limits, and they are
not as robust as they should be.  There is no prospect of improving
them at this late stage.  The message may mean nothing at all, or it
may mean that your directions for spanning rows and columns are not
consistent with each other.  If you find you can't ignore them, then
cut your example down as far as you can and post it to the list.

> 8) The diag package is great and I was able to do things that were
> hard to do in tikz/pgf quite easily. However, I have not been able to
> find a built-in way to colour edges. I have eventually hacked diag
> package to add colour to edges, but I may have missed something.

I see that @Link etc. don't have a paint option like nodes do.  I'm
not sure why that is (did I just forget?).  However, you can write

    green @Colour @Arrow from { ... } to { ... }

instead.  You can also colour the whole diagram:  green @Colour @Diag
...

Jeff