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From: grodan@cyklop.nada.kth.se (Mats G L|fdahl)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: How do I combine Midnight Macros dolines with LaTeX \item ?
Message-ID: <GRODAN.91May29150740@cyklop.nada.kth.se>
Date: 29 May 91 13:07:47 GMT
Sender: news@nada.kth.se (Mr News)
Distribution: comp
Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Lines: 58


Hi,

I recently picked up the midnight macros, since the dolines.tex stuff
seemed to be useful for what I'm trying to do.

I'm working on a LaTeX style for theatre manuscripts where the macros
for lines are made with \item. With a line I mean something a role 
character says, like 
	Hamlet:	To be or not to be, that is 
                the question.
that is created with essentially
	\item[Hamlet:] To be or not to be, that is the question.

In many cases one wants to decide the line breaks from the input and
get 
	Hamlet:	To be or not to be, 
		that is the question.
from
	\vitem[Hamlet:]	To be or not to be,
               		that is the question.

The trouble is to write the \vitem command ('v' for verse). I thought
I'd be able to combine the midnight doline stuff with LaTeX items, but
I can't seem to get it right.

I tried a number of approaches, inspired from the manual pp.10-11, but
with no success: 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\def\beforelines{\def\enddolines{}}  		% 'Hamlet:' ends up _after_
\def\everyline#1{\hbox{#1}}            	 	% the text.
\def\afterlines{\par}
\let\enddolines=\relax
\def\vitem[#1]{\item[#1]\begindolines}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
...
\def\vitem[#1]{\begindolines\item[#1]}          % Gives LaTeX error
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
\def\beforelines{\def\enddolines{}\item}        % I get:
...						% [Hamlet:] To be or not to be,
\def\vitem{\begindolines}			% that is the question.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


Does anybody out there know how to combine the doline stuff with
\item? I'll be equally glad for other solutions to my problem, but I
don't want solutions built on making \vitem start a group (or
environment), that is ended by the next command. I've implemented that
already, in a plain TeX version, but I'm not very happy with it.

                    /Mats

--
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 Mats Lofdahl, Stockholm Observatory, S-133 36 Saltsjobaden | +46 - 8 16 44 75 
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 Internet: lofdahl@astro.su.se | Bitnet: grodan@sekth | Sunet: royacs::lofdahl
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