Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!educ-isis!teexdwu
From: teexdwu@ioe.lon.ac.uk (DOMINIK WUJASTYK)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Problem creating a new floating environment in LaTeX
Message-ID: <1991Jan28.174410.1375@ioe.lon.ac.uk>
Date: 28 Jan 91 17:44:10 GMT
Reply-To: teexdwu@ioe.lon.ac.uk (DOMINIK WUJASTYK)
Organization: Institute of Education University of London
Lines: 48

The following macros are intended to produce an environment in a LaTeX'ed
book for including plates (photographic).  I read the book.doc and bk10.doc
and latex.tex files on this carefully, and came up with the following.


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Define a {plate} environment:
% PLATE
% From book.sty:
%
\newcounter{plate} % not stepped by chapter

\def\theplate{\@arabic\c@plate} 

\def\fps@plate{tbp}     % default positions (same as figure)
\def\ftype@plate{4}     % next power of 2
\def\ext@plate{lop}     % create a file <jobname>.lop
\def\fnum@plate{Plate \theplate}
\def\plate{\@float{plate}}
\let\endplate\end@float
\@namedef{plate*}{\@dblfloat{plate}}
\@namedef{endplate*}{\end@dblfloat}

% Define a List of Plates:
% From book.sty:

\def\listofplates{\@restonecolfalse\if@twocolumn\@restonecoltrue\onecolumn
  \fi\chapter*{List of Plates\@mkboth
   {List of Plates}{List of Plates}}\@starttoc{lop}\if@restonecol
    \twocolumn\fi}
\let\l@plate\l@figure

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

But the macros don't quite work, at least not when invoked as
"\begin{plate}[b] \vspace*{\fill} \caption{...} \end{plate}".  I get an
actual "p" printed at the top of a page.  Unfortunately, LaTeX doesn't
print any error message so there is little to go on.  Clearly, the
parameter isn't being picked up properly, but equally, I can't see
where my definition of "plate" differs from "figure" or "table", except
where it should.

It's annoying: the thing *almost* works.

Has anyone else played with this sort of thing?


Dominik