Re: Unwanted space in a figure

[Mark Summerfield]

On Tuesday 27 May 2003 23:17, Jeff Kingston wrote:
> Mark Summerfield wrote:
> > If you lout the lout below you'll notice that the gap between the
> > diagram itself and the figure caption is unexpectedly large.
>
> This is caused by the parts of the diagram after //, as you can
> verify by deleting those parts.  The short answer is that the
> figures you've got after // don't all use the translate option,
> instead their outlines are translated.  Lout doesn't know that
> and it thinks it's printing actual circles etc. after the //,
> hence the extra space.
>
> I suppose the simplest patch is to define a symbol
>
>    def @ZeroVertical right x { @OneRow { //0io x //0io } }
>
> and to enclose everything after the // in @ZeroVertical { ... }.
> That symbol uses overstriking to fool Lout into thinking that
> its right parameter has zero vertical size.

That works perfectly, thanks!

> I wonder though whether it might not be better to reorganize the
> diagram a bit.  It looks more like six separate diagrams that
> happen to be in the same table, to me, than two diagrams.  I
> would be going for a set of six separatate definitions, each
> holding one diagram, like this:
>
>     def @FlatCap
>     {
>         @Diag { ... // ... }
>     }
>
> and so on.  Of course, you'd still have to make sure that each
> of the six diagrams did not have unwanted white space, but at
> least you could do that calmly outside the maelstrom of @Tbl.
> Later on when someone needs an EPS of each diagram separately,
> you'll be much better placed.  At present the diagrams are
> all tangled up together.

>From my point of view the 6 diagrams are really _one_ diagram. I just
happen to use more than one @Diag to express it.

> Generally speaking I am a fan of placing complex diagrams
> inside definitions.  It makes everything a lot clearer.

I can see the appeal of separating out diagrams into definitions, but
for me, I want the diagram right there in the text that the diagram is
helping to clarify.

Thanks.

-- 
Mark.