Re: How to do Conditional Formatting?

So here's the actual use that I plan to put this to so that we don't have
to talk so vaguely about "slightly different text" and "floating things" :)

I'm using Lout to produce legal documents, for leasing. At the end of the
first page there is a signature list. The signature list is a two-column
table, the column on the left is for Lessor signatures, and the column on
the right is for the Lessee's signature. The number of Lessors is variable,
it can be one or it might be 15. Now, if the entire table can fit on the
front page, I want to print it as-is. However, if it does not, I want to
put "See attached page" in the left column but the right column still has
the Lessee's signature line. Now, since the Lessee's signature is on the
first page, the attached page would just be for the Lessor's signatures.
That's why the table is "slightly different", it basically only has one
column instead of two, and is formatted a bit differently.


Now for convenience sake, we'll call the original two-column table
"Table1", the two-column table that has "See attached page" is "Table2",
and the modified one column table on the attached page is "Table3".

Jeffrey, your suggestions are basically along the line of how I considered
implementing this, but there's one part I can't figure out. Here's some
pseudo-C code for what I'm imagining:

startPage = getCurrentPage( );
print( Table1 );
endPage = getCurrentPage( );

if ( startPage != endPage ) {
    unprint( Table1 );
    print( Table2 ); // Lessee's signature and "see attached page"
    print( Table3); // Lessor signatures only
}

*The big question is, if I have to print Table1 to figure out what page it
ends up on, how can I "unprint" it and print the alternate Table instead?*


On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 3:15 PM, Jeff Kingston <[email protected]> wrote:

> Certainly there is nothing packaged up and ready to go.
>
> It's possible, using a @Case which compares the current
> page number with the page number that the thing is on, and
> returns "See attached page" if they differ.  That could be
> packaged up so you could call
>
>    tag.of.floating.thing @IfOnDifferentPage { See attached text }
>
> which would be fairly convenient, or perhaps
>
>    tag.of.floating.thing @OnThisPage
>       yes { @Null }
>       no { See attached text }
>
>
> Convergence might be a problem, I can see it flipping back and
> forth between its two results on alternating runs sometimes.
>
> Writing and testing @OnThisPage would be a small, fun exercise.
> If no-one else wants to do it, and Michael really really needs
> it, then I will do it.
>
> I haven't considered the difference between
>
>   print( text );
>
> and
>
>   print( slightlyDifferentText );
>
> You could probably do that in much the same way.
>
> Jeff
>
> On Fri, Jun 01, 2012 at 03:58:46PM +0200, Ludovic Court?s wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > "Michael Koehmstedt, RenPet" <[email protected]> skribis:
> >
> > > if ( canFitOnTheCurrentPage( text ) )
> > >      print( text );
> > > else {
> > >      print( "See attached page" );
> > >      newLine( );
> > >      print( slightlyDifferentText );
> > > }
> >
> > I don???t think this can be achieved in pure Lout.
> >
> > There???s the @CNP symbol, which does a ???conditional page break???:
> >
> >     macro @CNP        { // 3.2v @High //0io //{}              }
> >
> > But it???s not as sophisticated as what you???re looking for.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Ludo???.
>
>