Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936)
References: <19189.17593.814557.704925@morse.mittelbach-online.de>
Message-ID:  <37352BB8-70A0-450D-BC23-7F6497630937@gmail.com>
Date:         Sun, 8 Nov 2009 13:24:55 +1030
Reply-To: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project
              <LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
Sender: Mailing list for the LaTeX3 project <LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE>
From: Will Robertson <wspr81@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: an object type for heading commands
To: LATEX-L@LISTSERV.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE
In-Reply-To:  <19189.17593.814557.704925@morse.mittelbach-online.de>
Precedence: list
Status: R

Hi Frank,

On 07/11/2009, at 8:28 PM, Frank Mittelbach wrote:

> Here is my current list of candiates:
>
>  - title of the heading
>  - title version to go in the TOC
>  - title version to go in the running header
>  - subtitle of the heading (e.g., an author name, copyright  
> notice ...)
>  - motto/quote text to display alongside the heading title
>  - flag to number heading

Plus label, as mentioned by Lars.

> do we need a way to specify that something is send to the TOC or to  
> the
> running header and if so how do we do that?
>
> what else is missing or which of the above aren't sensible in the  
> first place?

The "quote text" seems a bit (but only a little) of a stretch to me,  
since usually I'd expect that could simply be done by a command that  
sends material to the galley after the chapter title is set. (As done  
by epigraph/memoir.)

The only other addition I can think of might be "description" that  
could end up in a short ToC containing a synopsis of each chapter.  
Again, this could probably be done outside of the main chapter object  
type.

* * *

Regarding numbering vs. putting in header vs. putting in the ToC, it's  
complicated to me because different heading levels will have different  
global behaviours, but individually might also need the be adjusted.  
E.g.:

numbered + header + ToC (chapter)
numbered + ToC (subsection, say)
numbered (subsubsection, say)
no number + header + ToC (frontmatter for small documents,  
bibliographies)
no number + header (e.g., a ToC heading itself)
no number (LaTeX default for \section*, never understood why -- seems  
useless)

So from my point of view how you're controlling the header and ToC is  
important to consider at the same time; assuming that there are high- 
level controls governing the ToC and running headers, then it doesn't  
seem often necessary from within the heading/sectioning object to  
disable a ToC entry or a running header entry.

But the "ToC heading" example above indicates that there might be an  
occasional need to do so, in which case your suggestion to overload  
toc-entry argument with {\NoValue} == "omit" and {} == "inherit" works  
well, I think.

* * *

(As a final comment, I thought briefly whether it made sense to split  
this object type into three: "heading", "contents-entry", and "running- 
header-entry", but I couldn't see a good argument for it.)

-- Will