[texhax] The visual effect of optional settings in inline lists

[P. R. Stanley]

> > Hi folks,
> >
> > What is the general purpose and visual effect of the optional
> > settings in the inparaenum environment in the document below?
> >
> > What I'm trying to achieve is to have the item index (numeral or
> > alphebetical) enclosed in a  pair of parentheses if, that is to say,
> > parents are indeed the right punctuations to use in in inline lists.
> >
> > %start source
> > \documentclass[a4paper, 12bp]{article}
> >
> > \usepackage{paralist}
> >
> > \begin{document}
> > I have two items in this list
> > \begin{inparaenum}[\itshape a \upshape] %the optional args
> > \item this is the first item and
> > \item this is the second.
> > \end{inparaenum}
> >
> > \end{document}
> > %end source]
>
>Tried out your code; as far as I can discern the ``\itshape'' parameter
>makes the item counters (i.e. ``a'' and ``b'' appear in italic font.
>Without it, the ``a'' and ``b'' appear in the regular roman font.
>
>As far as I can discern, the ``\upshape'' parameter has no effect
>whatever!!!  Others may set me straight on this.
>
>P. S. Apropos of nothing much, I got a LaTeX warning:
>
>LaTeX Warning: Unused global option(s):
>     [12bp].
>
>This may indicate something wrong with my installation --- might explain why
>``\upshape'' has no effect for me.  Or not .....

>Paul: Thanks, Rolf. I use mikTeX 2.8 and it seems happy with the 
>adobe bp unit measurement. One thing I've noticed is that with this 
>installation I can't leave out the language and the fontenc and 
>inputenc specs in my source code.

Cheers, Paul