Conference vaxuum::document_ft

596.0. "Why so many BREAK tags?" by AUTHOR::WELLCOME (Steve) Mon Jul 06 1987 14:39

    I have trouble remembering what break tag to use when.
    In terms of functionality, I can identify only two cases.
    Can't we get by with just two tags, one that says, "you can
    break anyplace beyond this point, until I tell you it's no
    longer okay" (what <TABLE_ROW_BREAK>(FIRST/LAST) does), 
    and one that says, "You can break at this point and no 
    other" (what <VALID_BREAK> does)?  It could be:
    
    <BREAK>(FIRST)/ <BREAK>(LAST) to delimit an area where a 
    break could occur anyplace DOCUMENT saw fit to do so, and
    
    <BREAK>(HERE) to identify a specific place where a break could
    occur.
    
    <BREAK>(HERE) would in effect replace <VALID_BREAK> and
    <NESTED_TABLE_BREAK).  The current situation, with a different
    break tag required for each context where a break is desired,
    reminds me a bit of earlier versions of DOCUMENT when we needed
    different <n_COLS> tags depending on the number of columns
    in the table.  Since DOCUMENT knows (I hope!) the context in
    which a break is requested, I don't see why the break tags have 
    to be different depending on the context, if the desired functionality
    is the same.
    
    I think this has been mentioned before, but I'll run it by again....
    

    
    we will look at those for a future release.