Lack of flexible pagesizing [Was "Re: minipage + prosper problem"]

On 16 Jun 2003, Chris Kuklewicz wrote:
>
> prosperletter is a slightly modified prosperclass that is setup for
> 8.5 inch x 11 inch paper.  PPPrleLetter is my modified template (for
> which I will say \noindent\psgrid is the tool for modifying
> templates).

I'd like to see what Chris does to set up letter proportions, but this brings
up a point which has bothered me since I started looking at the prosper
package a month ago.  Namely, the way the page size is handled is inflexible.
To me, it is just plain bad programming to not parameterize page settings so
that they work with any page size, be it a4, a3 or letter.

For instance, in prosper.cls,

   \def\Cropping@Box{0 0 595 890} % By default: cropping to a4 paper dimensions

These values are point sizes that can be calculated from \paperwidth and
\paperheight using the calc package.  Or at the very least, "a4" and "letter"
could be made class options, with a4 the default, but with the optional letter
setting of

   \def\Cropping@Box{0 0 612 792} % cropping to letterpaper dimensions

Another point -- prosper.cls has a nice setup for the eventual pdf output, but
not postscript output:

   \ifDVItoPS
   \else
     \AtEndOfClass{%
       \hypersetup{pdfpagescrop=\Cropping@Box}%
     }
   \if@distiller
   \else
     \AtBeginDvi{%
         \pdfmark{pdfmark=/PAGES,
           Raw={/Rotate 90}}
     }%
   \fi
   \fi

Now dvips doesn't put the pages in the proper orientation unless given the -t
landscape option, but this can be remedied with something like

   \AtBeginDvi{%
      \special{!/landplus90 true store}% for correct orientation
     }%

so an explicit option doesn't need to be provided.

Finally, all the cute pstricks boxes used in the various PPR*.sty files are
hardcoded to hardcoded coordinates.  These too should be parameterized using
calc.  \rightupper could be set to say, \paperwidth - 0.5in.

Just my two cents, feel free to ignore ;-).
-- 
 Ted Stern                                 Applications Group
 Cray Inc.                               office: 206-701-2182
 411 First Avenue South, Suite 600         cell: 206-383-1049
 Seattle, WA 98104-2860                     FAX: 206-701-2500

 Frango ut patefaciam -- I break that I may reveal
 (The Paleontological Society motto, equally apropos for debugging)



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