# [OS X TeX] Staggering

Peter Dyballa Peter_Dyballa at Web.DE
Thu Mar 8 11:11:02 CET 2007

Am 07.03.2007 um 18:05 schrieb Alain Schremmer:

> 3) What I would like to do is to use the exponent as third
> parameter instead of the value of the power, say
>
>    \brmultiply{17}{2}{6}
>    \brmultiply{3}{3}{4}
>
>
>    \brmultiply{17}{2}{1088}
>    \brmultiply{3}{3}{243}

Do you mean something like this:

\newcounter{result}
\newcounter{steps}		% iterations of the loop
\newlength{\relspc}		% twice maximum left shift
\newlength{\relstep}		% estimation of decreasing shift
\newlength{\ubrace}		% length of \underbrace expression
\newlength{\reslen}		% length of the result
\newcommand{\stagger}[3]{
\setlength{\relstep}{1.75em}	% OK for small numbers
\setlength{\relspc}{\relstep*#3}
\setcounter{result}{#1}
\begin{center}
\forloop{steps}{0}{\value{steps}<#3}{
\settowidth{\ubrace}{$\underbrace{\theresult\times#2}$}
\settowidth{\reslen}{\theresult}
\setlength{\relspc}{\relspc-\ubrace+\reslen}
$\underbrace{\theresult\times#2}$\rule{\relspc}{0pt}%\thesteps
\\
\setcounter{result}{#2*\value{result}}
}
\theresult
\end{center}
}

When you make the commented \thesteps active you can see the value of
the loop counter.
When you change the 0pt to 1pt you can see the amount of space by
which the lines are shifted to the left.

Using a font size relative value for the amount by which the left
shift is reduced line by line makes it independent of the font size
or the font used. When using larger numbers you will need to increase
\relstep – but then you would not be able to use the same function
also for small numbers. A forth argument, this width, could help. A
more radical approach would be to determine the largest and smallest
underbrace and to compute from this the maximal shift width. (The
result and the last underbrace do not need to be shifted.)

--
Greetings

Pete

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the
impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

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