[texhax] CTAN: TeX, not LaTeX

[hymie at lactose.homelinux.net]

Philip Taylor writes:
>
>I also use plain TeX, but tend to write everything from scratch; if you
>can tell me what sort of things you are trying to attempt, I may be able
>to offer some ideas.

Thanks for the offer.

Right now, my obstacle is this:

I have a TeX file that prints 10-up business cards in vboxes 2 inches
high and half-a-page wide.  Unfortunately, it prints them line by line
top to bottom:

\def\bigline{\largeheadfont My Name}
\def\lineone{My address}
\def\linetwo{City State Zip}
\def\linethr{Phone numbers}
\def\linefou{Email address}

\vbox to2truein{
\settabs2\columns
\vfil
\+\hfill\bigline\hfill&\hfill\bigline\hfill&\cr
\+\hfill\lineone\hfill&\hfill\lineone\hfill&\cr
\+\hfill\linetwo\hfill&\hfill\linetwo\hfill&\cr
\+\hfill\linethr\hfill&\hfill\linethr\hfill&\cr
\+\hfill\linefou\hfill&\hfill\linefou\hfill&\cr
\vfil}

And I was trying to figure out a way to print them card by card
sort of like this:

\vbox to2truein{
\settabs2\columns
\vfil
\+\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
&
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\hfill stuff \hfill (newline)
\vfil}

But as far as I can tell, I can't get "settabs" to work in this manner.

Years ago, I used to have a "cassette.tex" file that (I think) created
boxes of text and specifically placed them in specific places.  But
I can't seem to find it.

Anyway, it was my hope that, once I figured out how to do that, I could
use that as a "template" for other similar but more complex stuff.

--hymie!    http://lactose.homelinux.net/~hymie    hymie at lactose.homelinux.net