RE: A few questions about Lout

[Mats Broberg]

Jeff et al,

Many thanks for your comments & answers to my questions about Lout!

Best regards,
Mats Broberg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden 
> [mailto:address@hidden On Behalf Of 
> Jeff Kingston
> Sent: den 8 mars 2005 04:02
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: A few questions about Lout
> 
> 
> In reply to Mats Broberg's questions:
> 
> > 1: Font installation in TeX & Children deterred me ALOT. To 
> install a 
> > complete font with small caps, old style figures, alternate 
> characters 
> > etc one needs to write a fontinst file, comprising a couple 
> of hundred 
> > lines of code. Not good for us mere mortals! I get the 
> impression that 
> > this is considerably more easy in Lout? Correct?
> 
> It's easy to install a font.  This does not include old style 
> figures and alternate characters.  You would need a separate 
> font containing those.  Lout does however produce small caps 
> automatically for any font.
> 
> > 2: Is hanging punctuation (= commas, periods, colons, semicolons, 
> > quotation marks and hyphens protruding slightly into the margin) 
> > possible to achieve in Lout?
> 
> Yes, but it is not provided in the standard packages, so you 
> would need to do some programming, and even then it does not 
> happen automatically; i.e. you would need to invoke a symbol 
> to get it rather than just typing the character.
> 
> > 3: Is it possible to have multiple series of footnotes and margin 
> > notes, separated with definable rules and vertical spaces? E.g. 
> > something like
> > this:
> 
> > Main text main text main tex main text @FootNoteSeriesA { A 
> foot note 
> > in series A. } Main text main text main tex main text 
> @FootNoteSeriesB 
> > { A footnote in series B } Main text main text main tex main text. 
> > Main text main text main tex main text.
> 
> Not really.  There are margin notes and footnotes, but only 
> one series of each.  Again, in principle Lout could do this 
> but the programming effort would be significant.
> 
> > 4: If it turns out the last line of a paragraph has only one or two 
> > words, is it possible to slightly, slightly tighten the 
> paragraph so 
> > that the short line moves back to the preceding line? Can this be 
> > automated (for long documents)?
> 
> Lout has fixed rules for optimal paragraph breaking that 
> cannot be changed.  They generally give a pretty good result, 
> comparable with TeX, and they include trying to avoid short 
> final lines of paragraphs.
> 
> > 5: I seem to remember from browsing the archive that someone asked 
> > about line numbering and got the answer that this is not 
> possible in 
> > Lout?
> 
> Correct, not possible.
> 
> > 6: Is it possible to typeset on a grid in Lout? E.g. if there is a 
> > figure at the top of the page, make sure that the following 
> main text 
> > starts at a multiple of the line spacing used, so that 
> lines on both 
> > sides of the paper line up when you hold up the sheet?
> 
> You can't say, "typeset on a grid".  What you can do is set 
> the various options for paragraph spacing etc., and specify 
> the exact height you want each figure to have.  With a bit of 
> care, you can get this.
> 
> > 7: At GNU, it says that Lout does "optimal paragraph and page 
> > breaking". AFAIK, TeX & Children only do optimal paragraph 
> breaking. 
> > In what way does Lout improve the page breaking?
> 
> Lout can do optimal page breaking in a manner entirely 
> analogous to optimal paragraph breaking turned sideways.  
> However it does not work very well when there are many 
> floating footnotes and figures.
> 
> > 8: How about letterspacing? Is it possible to letterspace 
> e.g. small 
> > caps or caps?
> 
> Yes, here and there by using a symbol that requests this.  If 
> you want something that happens automatically every time you 
> invoke, say, small caps, then no.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Jeff Kingston
>