mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Peter Rapčan <address@hidden>]

Hi everybody,

Why is this not actually called “stretchable space” ? — which apparently exists but serves some other purpose. 

Some time ago I was searching precisely for this functionality and I failed, since:

1. tab usually means a *fixed* number of spaces

2. when inserting a tabulator from Format -> Whites space->Tabulator, the context sensitive toolbar actually says that the tabulator just inserted is a 5mm one (hence what is indicated is in line with point 1. above and is completely contrary to being actually stretchable)

3. until one enters a character after the tabulator, nothing happens with the cursor (only after inserting a character the character (and cursor) are shifted). Hence prior to writing that character, the user is further convinced that no stretchable space (tab) has been inserted.

I found the above situation very non-intuitive :-(. 

Moreover, to insert a stretchable space, I think most users would head to the Insert menu and not to the Format menu.

Just my 5 cents, 

Peter

On 28 May 2021, at 16:51, Basile Audoly <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi Frank,

I believe you can achieve this by inserting 2 tabs and then 3 tabs,

Basile

Le 28 mai 2021 à 16:47, Frank <address@hidden> a écrit :

Hi all,

I am not sure whether they correspond to the following functionality: for example, I need to put two spaces, of length 2*l and 3*l like

x (2*l spaces) x (3*l spaces) x

Then the first x and the last x are at the left margin and the right margin, and the l is calculated so that 5*l+(length of three x's) = 1par, for example.

This is realized by "x\hspace{\stretch2}x\hspace{\stretch3}x", if I am not mistaken.

I am now trying to mimic some behavior of LaTeX because I plan to understand whether it is possible to emulate this behavior in TeXmacs instead of inserting a precompiled PDF from LaTeX. These kinds of stretches are not used in main articles.

Best wishes,
Frank

On 5/28/21, TeXmacs wrote:

Hi Frank,
On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 04:18:14PM +0200, Frank wrote:

I wonder whether it is possible to stretch the horizontal and vertical spaces with respect to a ratio, similar to \hfill and \vfill or \hspace{\stretch 2} and \vspace{\stretch 3}, etc. in LaTeX?

All spaces are stretchable in TeXmacs;
you can specify a minimum, default, and maximum space.
There are also horizontal tabs.
Contrary to LaTeX, you can also have stretchable vertical spaces by the way,
which is useful for global page breaking (which LaTeX cannot do).
Best wishes, --Joris