[tex-eplain] [JDM95003@uconnvm.uconn.edu: Question about eplain extensions]

[John Culleton]

On Thursday 01 November 2001 09:31, you wrote:
> Can anyone help Jim?  I don't know the answer myself.
>
> Date:         Wed, 31 Oct 01 09:47:13 EST
> From: Jim Monte <JDM95003@uconnvm.uconn.edu>
> To: karl@cs.umb.edu
> Subject:      Question about eplain extensions
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I found your macros for extending Plain TeX on the Internet and tried
> using the two-column format.  It worked well until two insertions
> appeared on the same page.  Around this section, there was a large
> blank area about the size of the insertions.  Complicating things
> a bit, I switched to single column to allow a full-width insertion
> shortly after this.  Basically the input was
>     \begincolumns2
>     ...
>     text
>     \midinsert ... \endinsert
>     text
>     \midinsert ... \endinsert
>     text
>     \begincolumns1
>     \midinsert ... \endinsert
>     \begincolumns2
>     ...
>
> The output of page 12 had a space in the right column that was the
> size of the two single-column insertions.  Page 13 began with the
> full-page insertion, and the text below this extended too far down the
> page, running off the bottom.  Any suggestions you may have on how to
> fix this problem would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Jim Monte
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> http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-eplain

I can only quote the eplain manual (p 24):
"Also, Eplain makes insertions the full page width. There is no provision for 
column-width insertions."

Texsis (a superset of plain tex) allows for column width insertions. You 
might want to look that package up on tug.org or ctan. It seems to have  more 
sophisticated handling of inserts in double column output. It won't do triple 
or quadruple. And it messes up column balancing if you play too much with 
switching between single and double column on the same page. 
-- 
John Culleton
WexfordPress - http://wexfordpress.com
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