[texhax] Strange formatting.

[Iraj Kalantari]

A remark from a Tex 101 user:

If we use

\Huge {Dear brothers: I think that God has made us apostles the most  
abject of mankind.  We experience hunger and thirst, we are naked, we  
are roughly handled, and we have no fixed abode ... They curse us and  
we bless.  They persecute us and we suffer it ... They treat us as the  
scum of the earth, the dregs of humanity ... to this very day.}
\normalsize


the problem exists and disappears after insertion of a blank line  
before '\normalsize' .


But, if we use

{\Huge {Dear brothers: I think that God has made us apostles the most  
abject of mankind.  We experience hunger and thirst, we are naked, we  
are roughly handled, and we have no fixed abode ... They curse us and  
we bless.  They persecute us and we suffer it ... They treat us as the  
scum of the earth, the dregs of humanity ... to this very day.}}
\normalsize

the problem exists and is *not* repaired after the insertion of a  
blank line in the same spot. (Same with the inner pair of braces  
removed.)

I wonder if that is helpful -- I wouldn't know.


Iraj.



••••••••••••••••

On Apr 13, 2010, at 4:20 PM, Tom Backer Johnsen wrote:

> Thanks for the responses, and I'll have to think about them.  I fail  
> think that the lack of any descenders in the first line is the real  
> cause of the problem.  Having to replace "Dear" with "Deary" is  
> contrary with what I regard as the basic philosopy of LaTex.  On the  
> other hand, having to add a blank line before the \normalsize (which  
> worked very nicely, thank you) smacks a little of a magic wand, At  
> least at the moment I cannot understand the explanation, I'll have  
> to mull on that one.
>
> Given my limited experience with LaTex (three or four years), I  
> hardly dare to imply that this must be a bug.  However, given the  
> documentation I have read, I am inclined to regard anything after  
> the \Huge command as being formatted accordingly, regardless of  
> descenders. Once you turn on that effect it remains in power, until  
> some other command changes that attribute for the formatting of the  
> text.  The fact that I would have to to do something  (completely  
> illogical in my eyes) at the very END of that particular section to  
> get everything right in the BEGINNING of that section, is in my eyes  
> completely illogical.  And very confusing for users.  I have to add  
> that my experience with programming goes back at least forty years.   
> I have generated many bugs of many different kinds.
>
> Sorry, I regard this as strange behavior of the LaTex system.  I am  
> inclined to think this is a bug.
>
> Tom
>
> Tom Backer Johnsen wrote:
>> This is something I have never seen with LaTex before.  If you look  
>> at the .pdf file, you see that the line height for the second line  
>> (and possibly the first as well) is smaller than the others.  This  
>> the source:
>>
>> \documentclass[11pt,a5paper]{article}
>>
>> \usepackage{geometry}
>> \geometry{a4paper,tmargin=3cm,bmargin=3cm,lmargin=2.5cm,rmargin=2cm}
>> \renewcommand\familydefault{ppl}
>> \begin{document}
>> \Huge
>>
>> Dear brothers: I think that God has made us apostles the most  
>> abject of mankind.  We experience hunger and thirst, we are naked,  
>> we are roughly handled, and we have no fixed abode ... They curse  
>> us and we bless.  They persecute us and we suffer it ... They treat  
>> us as the scum of the earth, the dregs of humanity ... to this very  
>> day.
>> \normalsize
>>
>> \end{document}
>>
>> For the curious:  This is part of Leonard Bernstein's MASS.  I am  
>> to read this text as part of the performance premiere on Saturday   
>> (in Bergen, Norway), and that is why I want the text to be in a  
>> large font.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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