What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles

1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x

where I want it to take up the entire page width. The obj are objects
(boxes made with the picture environment) and the x are white space. A
number in front of an x defines its relative size; so in this example,
there will be twice as much white space between two obj then there is
next to the left and right margins. The point is that as I'm developing
the obj, the layout while be allocated by TeX and I wont have to mess
around calculating lengths and counting pixels with each edit.

Memory says this is really trivial but memory doesn't tell me what to
look up for the details. Either LaTeX or simple TeX mechanisms are what
I seek. I'm using the standard article class augmented by the amsmath
package. Thanks in advance for any pointers.
--
Jeff Barnett

In article <sejn78$u6f$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
writes:

> What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles
>
> 1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x
>
> where I want it to take up the entire page width. The obj are objects
> (boxes made with the picture environment) and the x are white space. A
> number in front of an x defines its relative size; so in this example,
> there will be twice as much white space between two obj then there is
> next to the left and right margins. The point is that as I'm developing
> the obj, the layout while be allocated by TeX and I wont have to mess
> around calculating lengths and counting pixels with each edit.
>
> Memory says this is really trivial but memory doesn't tell me what to
> look up for the details. Either LaTeX or simple TeX mechanisms are what
> I seek. I'm using the standard article class augmented by the amsmath
> package. Thanks in advance for any pointers.
> --
> Jeff Barnett

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$\cdot$
\hfill A
\hfill \hfill B
\hfill \hfill C
\hfill \hfill D
\hfill
$\cdot$
\end{document}

Note: the $\cdot$ commands are there just to show where the margins are.

On 8/6/2021 10:35 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <sejn78$u6f$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
> writes:
>
>> What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles
>>
>> 1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x
>>
>> where I want it to take up the entire page width. The obj are objects
>> (boxes made with the picture environment) and the x are white space. A
>> number in front of an x defines its relative size; so in this example,
>> there will be twice as much white space between two obj then there is
>> next to the left and right margins. The point is that as I'm developing
>> the obj, the layout while be allocated by TeX and I wont have to mess
>> around calculating lengths and counting pixels with each edit.
>>
>> Memory says this is really trivial but memory doesn't tell me what to
>> look up for the details. Either LaTeX or simple TeX mechanisms are what
>> I seek. I'm using the standard article class augmented by the amsmath
>> package. Thanks in advance for any pointers.
>> --
>> Jeff Barnett
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \begin{document}
> $\cdot$
> \hfill A
> \hfill \hfill B
> \hfill \hfill C
> \hfill \hfill D
> \hfill
> $\cdot$
> \end{document}
>
> Note: the $\cdot$ commands are there just to show where the margins are.

Thank you!.
--
Jeff Barnett

On 06/08/2021 17:35, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <sejn78$u6f$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
> writes:
>
>> What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles
>>
>> 1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x
>>
>> where I want it to take up the entire page width. The obj are objects
>> (boxes made with the picture environment) and the x are white space. A
>> number in front of an x defines its relative size; so in this example,
>> there will be twice as much white space between two obj then there is
>> next to the left and right margins. The point is that as I'm developing
>> the obj, the layout while be allocated by TeX and I wont have to mess
>> around calculating lengths and counting pixels with each edit.
>>
>> Memory says this is really trivial but memory doesn't tell me what to
>> look up for the details. Either LaTeX or simple TeX mechanisms are what
>> I seek. I'm using the standard article class augmented by the amsmath
>> package. Thanks in advance for any pointers.
>> --
>> Jeff Barnett
>
> \documentclass{article}
> \begin{document}
> $\cdot$
> \hfill A
> \hfill \hfill B
> \hfill \hfill C
> \hfill \hfill D
> \hfill
> $\cdot$
> \end{document}
>
> Note: the $\cdot$ commands are there just to show where the margins are.

Nice, elegant solution.

You may want to precede the line with \noindent, otherwise if you have
indentation turned on, you'll get indentation white-space at the start
of the line.

You don't mention if you are going to use this repeatedly. If the widths
of the obj boxes are very different, especially from line to line of
multiple occurrrences, then the layout will look uneven: despite the
space being calculated correctly, it's only on a per-line basis. If you
need multiple lines to align down the page, you'll need a solution based
on the tabular environment, alternatively some macros to calculate the
spacing.

Peter

Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com> writes:

> On 8/6/2021 10:35 AM, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> In article <sejn78$u6f$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
>> writes:
>>
>>> What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles
>>>
>>> 1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x
>>>

[...]

>>> -- Jeff Barnett
>> \documentclass{article}
>> \begin{document}
>> $\cdot$
>> \hfill A
>> \hfill \hfill B
>> \hfill \hfill C
>> \hfill \hfill D
>> \hfill
>> $\cdot$
>> \end{document}
>> Note: the $\cdot$ commands are there just to show where the margins
>> are.
>
> Thank you!.

An alternative solution is as follows:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\begin{document}
\begin{tabularx}{1.0\linewidth}%
{@{}>{\hsize=0.166666666667\hsize\linewidth=\hsize}X@{}l%
@{}>{\hsize=0.333333333334\hsize\linewidth=\hsize}X@{}l%
@{}>{\hsize=0.333333333334\hsize\linewidth=\hsize}X@{}l%
@{}>{\hsize=0.166666666667\hsize\linewidth=\hsize}X@{}}%
&obj&&obj&&obj&\\
\end{tabularx}
\end{document}

Here I do

a0x obj a1x obj a2x obj … aNx

The number bn in \hsize=bn\hsize computes as follows

bn = N × an / (sum ai)

So in the example above I have taken

a0 = 1
a1 = 2
a2 = 2
a2 = 1

hence :

b0 = 0.166666666667
b1 = 0.333333333334
b2 = 0.333333333334
b2 = 0.166666666667

This solution looks more complex compared to the other one, but it has
several advantages:

1) you are not bound to ai being integer (well, indeed with the other
one too because you could have:

\begin{document}
a0\hfill obj
a1\hfill obj
a3\hfill obj
a4\hfill
\end{document}

2) you can also change the vertical alignment of obj by defining
alternative column types (see tabularx documentation) --- OK, not a
significant advantage either, because anyway it is so easy with the
picture environment to move the baseline.

3) you could easily replace the space by something else (eg dotlines) by
populating the X columns.

4) you could do some framing by having column rules in the tabularx
format and use \cline for horizontal rules (well, a simple \fbox around
the objs would also do).

In conclusion what solution to take is more a matter of taste.

On 8/6/2021 3:56 PM, Peter Flynn wrote:
> On 06/08/2021 17:35, Phillip Helbig (undress to reply) wrote:
>> In article <sejn78$u6f$1@dont-email.me>, Jeff Barnett <jbb@notatt.com>
>> writes:
>>
>>> What I want to do is create a horizontal structure that resembles
>>>
>>>        1x obj 2x obj 2x obj 2x obj 1x
>>>
>>> where I want it to take up the entire page width. The obj are objects
>>> (boxes made with the picture environment) and the x are white space. A
>>> number in front of an x defines its relative size; so in this example,
>>> there will be twice as much white space between two obj then there is
>>> next to the left and right margins. The point is that as I'm developing
>>> the obj, the layout while be allocated by TeX and I wont have to mess
>>> around calculating lengths and counting pixels with each edit.
>>>
>>> Memory says this is really trivial but memory doesn't tell me what to
>>> look up for the details. Either LaTeX or simple TeX mechanisms are what
>>> I seek. I'm using the standard article class augmented by the amsmath
>>> package. Thanks in advance for any pointers.
>>> --
>>> Jeff Barnett
>>
>> \documentclass{article}
>> \begin{document}
>> $\cdot$
>> \hfill A
>> \hfill \hfill B
>> \hfill \hfill C
>> \hfill \hfill D
>> \hfill
>> $\cdot$
>> \end{document}
>>
>> Note: the $\cdot$ commands are there just to show where the margins are.
>
> Nice, elegant solution.
>
> You may want to precede the line with \noindent, otherwise if you have
> indentation turned on, you'll get indentation white-space at the start
> of the line.
>
> You don't mention if you are going to use this repeatedly. If the widths
> of the obj boxes are very different, especially from line to line of
> multiple occurrrences, then the layout will look uneven: despite the
> space being calculated correctly, it's only on a per-line basis. If you
> need multiple lines to align down the page, you'll need a solution based
> on the tabular environment, alternatively some macros to calculate the
> spacing.

No, I have eight identically sized and formatted boxes and I just want
to lay them out 4 in a line, probably in a figure. I printed out the
documentation for the subfig package - 60+ pages of it and my eyes
glazed over. So I was trying to remember a simpler approach. As you said
"Nice, elegant, solution". What I was trying to remember has started to
pop back: infinitely stretchable glue. I think that's what \hfill is
built from. When I asked the list for help, I couldn't remember that
buzz phrase and so didn't know what to search on. I think it's all good now.
--
Jeff Barnett