Re: Anyone done a phonebook in Lout?

[Jeff Kingston]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2005 11:18:50 -0500, James, Edward Mr DTSW/TCS wrote:
  > 
  > Hello,
  >  
  > I am doing a phonebook in Lout. The basic entry is a name, filler dots, and 
a number, i.e.
  > "Dir STEC ................ 703-696-8815."  These are listed in three 
columns per page.  I can get
  > Lout to do almost everything I need so far, but I have several questions.
  >  
  > 1. I can figure the column size from the equation in the User Guide on page 
65, 
  >     "2.12 Multiple Columns."
  >     Is there a way to figure how wide a given entry will be, based on a 
given font and size?
  >     Then I can create exact entries for "lines @Break" to make filled 
columns.

I don't quite understand this, but no, there is no way to find out what the 
width will be
except by hand calculating it yourself beforehand based on the page width and 
margin and
gutter widths, which is not recommended.  But you should not need to know this 
width.

  >  
  > 2. Is there a way to change the fill character to a period, and do (pseudo 
code)
  >     "@Left { name } @Fill { "." } @Right { phonenumber }" ?

I'm not sure what you mean by "change" - are you in a table of contents in an 
existing
Lout document type?  If so there is a setup file option.  If you are just 
generating
ordinary text, you need the following definition:

    def @PhoneBookEntry
        named name {}
        named number {}
    {
        def @Fill { "."  @Fill }

        name |1rt @OneCol { @Fill number }
    }

Actually this will not be exactly what you want but if you get this going we can
talk about refinements later.

Jeff

  >  
  > Thank you very much for any help you can provide,
  >  
  > Ed