Message-Id: <199312131458.AA25992@mail.cs.tu-berlin.de>
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Date:         Mon, 13 Dec 93 14:50:40 GMT
From: Sebastian Rahtz <spqr@FTP.TEX.AC.UK>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
To: Multiple Recipients of <LATEX-L@DHDURZ1.BITNET>
Subject:      ideas for floats (forwarded)
Status: R


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Figure environment and floats in particular currently behave in a way
that makes page design inconvenient. Programs like PageMaker look
attractive compared with LaTeX. Even stupid programs like MS-Word and
WordPerfect look attractive compared with LaTeX.

This should not be so. The LaTeX design COULD be better than all of
them. The features needed:

  1. A figure option to place a figure on the current page directly
     after its citation. This implies that a figure citation exist which
     marks a page and a page location where the figure is to appear.

  2. Item 1, but the figure goes in a particular place on the page: top,
     bottom, margin or here.

  3. Failure algorithm. If the figure cannot be placed where it is
     desired, say page 10, then the page markup system creates page 10a,
     10b, 10c, etc, and dumps the troublesome figures onto these pages.
     This is easy to implement in LaTeX and an acceptable kind of
     failure resolution. Everyone consulted dislikes the mystery page of
     floats that appears later on God Knows Where (application of the
     float algorithm in LaTeX). Evidence: Lamport advises people NOT to
     report this "error".

  4. A figure option to place the figure at a given location on the page
     supplied by the figure citation or on the next page in a certain
     location. The options must be ordered, with the first one taken if
     it is possible, then the next, if possible, and finally the failure
     algorithm is applied (see 3 above).

     Example: Put the figure after the citation now given (some macro
              construct) on the bottom of this page, or if it does not
              fit, onto the top of the next page, or if that fails, then
              on a page of floats by itself, so I can figure out what to
              do with the figure manually.

  5. A figure option with a list of pages and places to put a figure.
     The failure algorithm applies if none of the requests can be
     honored. This is a generalization of item 4.

  6. A figure macro that wraps text around a figure. There is a style
     file called wrapfig.sty that attempts to do this, but it is not an
     integrated part of LaTeX and does not work on certain kinds of
     figures (pictex, for example). Feasibility is proven.

     More generally, it should be possible to lay out a page with boxes
     assigned to the page in advance, the text being required to flow
     around the boxes. This request is similar to what has been done by
     multicol.sty but even there it is a hack because the output routine
     of LaTeX is not presently suited to these ideas.

  7. Figure options should exist for placing figures on certain pages,
     for example, large figures on even pages, and only margin figures
     on odd pages. Currently, this is nearly impossible to achieve.

  8. The clearpage command needs some clones that do not eject the page.
     It should be possible to dump the figures without ejecting a page.
     For example, a figure might be saved from the previous page, and it
     is desired to dump it onto the current page and continue with
     paragraphs. Presently, the method is a hack at best, positioning
     the clearpage to some magic position by trial and error.

     A special case would be a thesis or book where several figures are
     to appear in order, the first at the bottom of the current page,
     then a page of floats, and the last figure is at the top of the
     next page of text. This is maddening in LaTeX but usual in the
     production of manuscripts! To maintain such a document is a
     trouble: a few words before the first figure can change everything,
     including the number of pages of floats!

  9. Plain TeX has a macro for building paragraphs of a certain shape
     decided upon by macro arguments. Knuth gives an example in the
     TeXbook. LaTeX needs something like this, but with realistic design
     parameters, not just a fixed list of dimensions. Part of the answer
     is in a wrapfigure macro.

     A general page-layout macro would allow certain portions of the
     page to be assigned in advance or reserved for pasteup. The text
     would be required to flow down the page with changing margins
     spanning many columns. Basically, this is handled at present by the
     tabular environment, but that mechanism is too clumsy for daily
     use.

     A way to voice what is wanted would be to say: I want a default
     tabular environment that defines a page, in which I can specify
     where the tables and figures are to be placed on that page, with
     the ability to remove figure and table objects on the fly and move
     them to the next unprocessed page, subject to an algorithm. The
     default page layout should be redefinable on each and every page,
     with the idea of book design driving the features.

 10. Alignment of figures and tables into the adjoining text is handled
     presently by mysterious rules. The rules of alignment need detailed
     documentation. For example, how can one make a replica in LaTeX of
     the New York skyline? How can I line up two tables along a certain
     row or position? How can I stack tables so they look good?

 11. The box macros fbox, framebox and relatives in the tabular and
     array environments need to be collected into a single family for
     uniformity. It should be possible to have in LaTeX all the popular
     boxes in fancybox.sty. Furthermore, these should be at the page
     level and the TeX BOX level and easy to use. It is an embarrassment
     to LaTeX that MS-Word and WordPerfect have easier and better box
     features!

 12. The figure experts should be consulted by invitation: the authors
     of fancybox.sty, PStricks, texdraw, PSlatex, gnuplot, xfig, plot79,
     ncar, maple-graphics to name a few. Each person who has created
     figure capabilities has ideas about what is missing and the list of
     missing features is LONG!

Best regards,

  Grant

*================================*
| Grant B. Gustafson             |
| 113 JWB, Dept Math, U. of Utah |
| Salt Lake City, UT 84112       |
| (801) 581-6879                 |
| email: gustafso@math.utah.edu  |
*================================*
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