[luatex] void box

[Andreas Matthias]

Patrick Gundlach wrote:

> Am 07.02.2012 um 18:48 schrieb Andreas Matthias:
> 
>> 
>> Actually I was just looking for a simple node as a starting point
>> for a list of nodes which are generated in some kind of loop.
>> I think an hlist node is very suitable for this:
>> 
>> 
>> list = node.new(node.id('hlist'))
> 
> you can say: node.new("hlist")
> 
> 
>> curr = list
>> 
>> for i=0,5 do
>>    n = node.new(node.id('glyph'))
>>    n.font=1
>>    n.char=97+i
>> 
>>    curr.next = n
>>    curr = n
>> end
> 
> that's fine, but you don't use 'list', right?

You mean the very first node of the list. Yes, it's just the head
of the list with no special meaning.

> you can create a node chain and use node.hpack(mychain) to get a hbox. You don't need one from start.

Well, if the first node is missing, I have to check inside the
loop for each created node whether or not it becomes the head
of the list. I think the code is much clearer without additional
if-clauses. And one can always remove the very first node
afterwards. -- Okay, maybe not a big advantage. But this was
the reason why I started to look for a suitable header of a
node list, i.e. an empty or void box. And I was astonished to
realize that I didn't know what a \voidb at x really was.


Ciao
Andreas