Subject: Re: LineBreaks vs Page/ColBreaks
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Sat May 27 2000 - 14:17:14 CDT
> Still, I don't quite understand why a paragraph should be able to span
> a page/column break. Looking at the internal data structures, a
> pagebreak only appears when inserted - not when a paragraph spills
> over the page limit.
A user may want to insert a page break within a paragraph to adjust how
many lines of a paragraph print on the current page vs. the next page.
(A "manual" means of widow / orphan control.)
Hope this helps!
Randy Kramer
Jesper Skov wrote:
>
> >>>>> "Martin" == Martin Sevior <msevior@mccubbin.ph.unimelb.edu.au> writes:
>
> >> That's not the case, however, and I wonder if that's by conscious
> >> design or JustTheWayItHappensToBe(TM). When inserting a linebreak,
> >> a new block is created for the following line. It seems natural (to
> >> my twisted mind, anyway) to have the same happen for columnbreaks
> >> and pagebreaks, but these just appear as runs inside the original
> >> block.
> >>
> >>
> Martin> I ran into this when I was trying to fix Luke Jordan's Lists
> Martin> patch. (I gave up and decided to leave it until Fields gets
> Martin> fixed). A new line gets a new Block. I assumed that a block
> Martin> was actually a paragraph. Hmm now I think about it a paragraph
> Martin> can span a pagebreak or a column break. That might be the
> Martin> answer. A block is a paragraph. A paragraph can span a
> Martin> pagebreak or column break. It would be good if one of the
> Martin> designers of abi could provide some clues however (hint) :-)
>
> Yes, I see. And I've implemented some code to deal with this.
>
> Still, I don't quite understand why a paragraph should be able to span
> a page/column break. Looking at the internal data structures, a
> pagebreak only appears when inserted - not when a paragraph spills
> over the page limit. So as I see it, page breaks don't differ much
> from line breaks in what they do - but they are treated differently in
> the code.
>
> Now, I can't claim to much of a WP user, so I don't know if there is
> any reason to treat them differently. Presumably, from the user's
> perspective, a line break and a page break are the same type of things
> - basically alignment operators, one aligning to the next line, the
> other to the next page. (same for column breaks). I remain unconvinced
> that these should cause such dramatic differences in the internal
> representation.
>
> It would indeed be nice with an explanation from someone who sits up
> there (at 20k feet, with a nice overview :)
>
> Jesper
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat May 27 2000 - 14:13:15 CDT