Xref: utzoo comp.text.tex:3192 comp.lang.apl:526
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From: duchier@cs.yale.edu (Denys Duchier)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,comp.lang.apl
Subject: Re: TeX Puzzle II
Message-ID: <DUCHIER.90Oct3133935@albania.cs.yale.edu>
Date: 3 Oct 90 17:39:34 GMT
References: <1990Oct3.024630.6222@midway.uchicago.edu>
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In-reply-to: c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu's message of 3 Oct 90 02:46:30 GMT

In article <1990Oct3.024630.6222@midway.uchicago.edu> c3ar@zaphod.uchicago.edu (Walter C3arlip) writes:
 >   ways.  I would like to use braces above and below the expression to
 >   identify the groupings.  Something like this:
 >
 >		  p           q 
 >	    |-----------||-----------|
 >	 abcdefgaaaabbbbccccdefghabecde
 >	 |-----||----------||---------|
 >	    x        y          z
 >
 >   where the "|-------|" represent braces.  (This would indicate something
 >   like "xyz = abcpqe".

There is a trivial solution if you are willing to use a fixed-width
font such as \tt (otherwise, you can use the same technique, but the
specifications become more cumbersome, e.g. you might have to specify
the actual substring rather than just the number of characters).

\documentstyle{article}
\begin{document}
%%
%% define new length \foo to be as wide as a letter in \tt.
%%
\newlength{\foo}
\settowidth{\foo}{\tt a}
%%
%% \O{N}{LABEL} starts an overbrace which extends over the next N
%% characters and has LABEL stacked on top.
%%
\def\O#1#2{\hbox to0pt{$\overbrace
  {\hbox{\strut\hskip#1\foo}}^{\hbox{\tt#2}}$\hss}}
%%
%% \U{N}{LABEL} similarly for an underbrace
%%
\def\U#1#2{\hbox to0pt{$\underbrace
  {\hbox{\strut\hskip#1\foo}}_{\hbox{\tt#2}}$\hss}}
%%
%% Now your example
%%
\begin{center}
  \tt \leavevmode
  \U{7}{x}abc\O{13}{p}defg\U{12}{y}aaaabbbbc\O{13}{q}ccc\U{11}{z}defghabecde
\end{center}
\end{document}

--Denys