[texhax] changing chapter (+ code)

[Uwe Lueck]

Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> schrieb am 11.01.2009 02:11:20:
> Uwe Lueck writes:
>  > "Christian Deindl" <deindl at soziologie.uzh.ch> schrieb am 09.01.2009 14:37:59:
>  > > I'm about to finish a report and I want to change the positon of the 
>  > > chapter-headlines. the default is a large gap between the page and the 
>  > > headline while I want the headline to start without this gap.
>  > [snip]
>  > > secondly I want to suppress a pagenumer on the first page of each chapter.
>  > 
>  > Copy this into your preamble and play with `50':
>  > [...]
> 
> Hi Uwe,
> isn't there a macro package available which allows you to determine
> how chapter headings are typeset?  At our local TeX meeting someone
> had a very similar problem recently.  Hence I think it's an FAQ.  I'm
> not familiar with all the LaTeX macro packages available, but I'm
> using TeX for almost two decades now and it's no problem for me to
> re-define the chapter code.  I solved the problem exactly the same way
> you solved Christian's problem.
> 
> However, I hope that a macro package is available which allows people
> to determine the layout of chapter headings conveniently and we simply
> missed it.  If such a thing doesn't exist already, isn't a LaTeX guru
> out there who has the skill necessary to provide such a package?
> 
> Changing the layout of chapter headings is not trivial, but it's
> definitely an FAQ.
> 
> I really hope that we are missing something.

I have referred to memoir.cls and nccsect.sty for similar purposes, 
but I don't know by heart what they offer for chapters. 
(You know, \@startsection is used for sections only ...)
For that specific posting, I could not imagine a less costing answer 
than referring directly to the standard code. 
For more general things about chapters, I once payed much "Lehrgeld" ...

Cheers, 

    Uwe.