[tex-eplain] Problem with marks and \doublecolumns

[Laurence.Finston at gmx.de]

Thanks for looking at this.  It doesn't sound like trying to fix it would be practical.
Since multiple columns use \output, I would say that implementing this feature would
probably require a solution that doesn't use \mark.

> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 05. Oktober 2022 um 00:41 Uhr
> Von: "Karl Berry" <karl at freefriends.org>
> An: Laurence.Finston at gmx.de
> Cc: tex-eplain at tug.org
> Betreff: Re: [tex-eplain] Problem with marks and \doublecolumns
>
> Hi Laurence - I'm close to releasing a new version of Eplain (nothing
> big, just minor fixes and updates), and thought I'd finally look at the
> \mark + \doublecolumns bug you reported last August.
> https://tug.org/pipermail/tex-eplain/2021/001001.html
> https://tug.org/pipermail/tex-eplain/2021/001003.html
>
> In short:
>
>     I think it would be nicer if the first version, with \topmark, would work.
>
> I agree.
>
>     However, if the multiple columns macros use \output,
>
> Which they do. Calling \singlecolumn or whatever \...columns invokes
> \output to collect the material so far.
>
>     I doubt that it would be possible to solve this problem with a
>     reasonable amount of work.
>
> I agree, unfortunately. It's not at all clear to me how to preserve the
> mark information in the face of all the crazy partial pages that Eplain
> tries to manipulate. (Just reading the comments in xeplain.tex about it
> gives the flavor of how painful it all is.)
>
> Presumably it is possible somehow, but unfortunately it's been a lot of
> years since I first wrote that code, and lots of other people have
> changed it since to fix the succession of bugs related to it, so it
> would be quite a project to look into it now.
>
> If you or someone else wants to undertake it, I'm all for it, and more
> power to you. But I'm afraid this one is going to remain unfixed by me.
> Sorry.
>
> Best,
> Karl
>