[texhax] \nobreaks shrinks following text (was: \nobreak adds undesired vertical glue)

[Donald Arseneau]

Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina at gmail.com> writes:

> Rodolfo Medina <rodolfo.medina at gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > At a certain point of a text, I need inserting a `\nobreak' to prevent page
> > breaking.  But then some undesired vertical glue is added by plain TeX.  Is
> > it possible to avoid that, and how?
> 
> 
> I correct myself: it's not that \nobreaks adds extra vertical glue, but that it
> shrinks the text that follows in the current paragraph.  Can anybody explain
> why?

No, \nobreak doesn't shrink text either.  (...unless you redefined it)

Two things it might do:

1) Prevents page breaks (gasp!) that fit the page better, forcing
TeX to use alternate break points that do not fit as well.  In order
for the page contents to fit, flexible glue will stretch or shrink.

2) It can hide vskips that come above it if you do things with \lastskip.
I don't see any use of \lastskip in what you posted.
.  
-- 
Donald Arseneau                          asnd at triumf.ca