Re: silly little text problem
* Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <jordigh@gmail.com> [080616 00:14]:
> On 15/06/2008, Chris Bannister <mockingbird@earthlight.co.nz> wrote:
> > Interesting, I have been using "\newline". Where did you find out out
> > about the "\\~\\" method?
>
> \\ seems to be a synonym for \newline, or maybe it's one of those TeX
> vs LaTeX things (e.g. $$...$$ vs \[...\]). And ~ is a space. So
> newline, space, newline. I guess you need the space there otherwise
> the \\ \\ would only put one newline in the target text.
\\~\\ is an easy-to-remember way to force output of a blank line.
It is good to know alternative commands, because in some situations
one command works while another command doesn't, and the reason why
one works and other doesn't is not always apparent.
The command \newline is identical to the command \\ without the
optional space parameter. The syntax of the command \\ is:
\\[space]
\\*[space]
in which the parameter space is the amount of vertical space inserted
between the lines. The *-form prevents a pagebreak between the lines.
I learned of the command from my "bible" for LaTeX, which is:
A Guide to LaTeX
Helmut Kopka & Patrick W. Daly
Third Edition
Addison-Wesley
ISBN 0-201-39825-7
No other book on TeX and LaTeX (and I have almost all of them) even
comes close to Kopka & Daly. If you have Kopka & Daly, it is fairly
safe to say that you shall need no other LaTeX reference. If you do
not have a copy of Kopka & Daily, it is fairly safe to say that you
need to obtain a copy.
While there is a fourth edition (and I have it, also), the changes
between the third and fourth editions are insignificant unless you are
using hyperref and XML. Note that the quality of the paper used for
the third edition is better than that used for the fourth edition.
RLH
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