<!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <meta name="generator" content="hevea 2.06"> <META name="Author" content="Luc Maranget"><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="manual.css"> <title>Lengths, Spaces and Boxes</title> </head> <body> <a href="manual034.html"><img src="previous_motif.gif" alt="Previous"></a> <a href="manual022.html"><img src="contents_motif.gif" alt="Up"></a> <a href="manual036.html"><img src="next_motif.gif" alt="Next"></a> <hr> <h2 class="section" id="sec157">B.13  Lengths, Spaces and Boxes</h2> <ul> <li><a href="manual035.html#sec158">Length</a> </li><li><a href="manual035.html#sec159">Space</a> </li><li><a href="manual035.html#sec160">Boxes</a> </li></ul> <h3 class="subsection" id="sec158">B.13.1  Length</h3> <p>All length commands are ignored, things go smoothly when L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X syntax is used (using the <code>\newlength</code>, <code>\setlength</code>, etc. commands, which are null macros). Of course, if lengths are really important to the document, rendering will be poor.</p><p>Note that T<sub>E</sub>X length syntax is not at all recognised. As a consequence, writing things like <code>\textwidth=10cm</code> will clobber the output. Users can correct such misbehaviour by adopting L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X syntax, here they should write <code>\setlength{\textwidth}{10cm}</code>.</p> <h3 class="subsection" id="sec159">B.13.2  Space</h3> <p> The <code>\hspace</code>, <code>\vspace</code> and <code>\addvspace</code> spacing commands and their starred versions recognise positive explicit length arguments. Such arguments get converted to a number of non-breaking spaces or line breaks. Basically, the value of <code>1em</code> or <code>1ex</code> is one space or one line-break. For other length units, a simple conversion based upon a 10pt font is used.</p><p>H<span class="c015"><sup>E</sup></span>V<span class="c015"><sup>E</sup></span>A cannot interpret more complicated length arguments or perform negative spacing. In these situations, a warning is issued and no output is done.</p><p>Spacing commands without arguments are recognised. The <code>\enspace</code>, <code>\quad</code> and <code>\qquad</code> commands output one, two and four non-breaking spaces, while the <code>\smallskip</code>, <code>\medskip</code> and <code>\bigskip</code> output one, one, and two line breaks.</p><p>Stretchable lengths do not exist, thus the <code>\hfill</code> and <code>\vfill</code> macros are undefined.</p> <h3 class="subsection" id="sec160">B.13.3  Boxes</h3> <p>Box contents is typeset in text mode (<em>i.e.</em> non-math and non-display mode). Both L<sup>A</sup>T<sub>E</sub>X boxing commands <code>\mbox</code> and <code>\makebox</code> commands exist. However <code>\makebox</code> generates a specific warning, since H<span class="c015"><sup>E</sup></span>V<span class="c015"><sup>E</sup></span>A ignore the length and positioning instructions given as optional argument.</p><p>Similarly, the boxing with frame <code>\fbox</code> and <code>\framebox</code> commands are recognised and <code>\framebox</code> issues a warning. When in display mode, <code>\fbox</code> frames its argument by enclosing it in a table with borders. Otherwise, <code>\fbox</code> calls the <code>\textfbox</code> command, which issues a warning and typesets its argument inside a <code>\mbox</code> (and thus no frame is drawn). Users can alter the behaviour of <code>\fbox</code> in non-display mode by redefining <code>\textfbox</code>.</p><p>Boxes can be saved for latter usage by storing them in <em>bins</em>. New bins are defined by <code>\newsavebox{</code><span class="c018">cmd</span><code>}</code>.</p><p>Then some text can be saved into <span class="c018">cmd</span> by <code>\sbox{</code><span class="c018">cmd</span><code>}{</code><span class="c018">text</span><code>}</code> or <code>\begin{lrbox}{</code><span class="c018">cmd</span><code>}</code> <span class="c018">text</span> <code>\end{lrbox}</code>. The text is translated to html, as if it was inside a <code>\mbox</code> and the resulting output is stored. It is retrieved (and outputted) by the command <code>\usebox{</code><span class="c018">cmd</span><code>}</code>. The <code>\savebox</code> command reduces to <code>\sbox</code>, ignoring its optional arguments.</p><p>The <code>\rule</code> commands translate to a html horizontal rule (<code><HR></code>) regardless of its arguments.</p><p>All other box-related commands do not exist.</p> <hr> <a href="manual034.html"><img src="previous_motif.gif" alt="Previous"></a> <a href="manual022.html"><img src="contents_motif.gif" alt="Up"></a> <a href="manual036.html"><img src="next_motif.gif" alt="Next"></a> </body> </html>