question

[Jim Diamond]

On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 14:41 (-0700), Walter Burkhard via texhax wrote:

> Hello,

> I am trying to draw in TeX a 4cm x 5.3cm outline rectangle.   However,
> I am missing something and the outline is not accomplished.   I have
> attached two files,  one the "source" test.tex and the other the "output"
> test.pdf.

> What am I missing here.

> Many thanks in advance.

Hi Walt,

you are constructing a vbox, and in your vbox you have multiple hboxes.
But sometimes (see The TeXbook!) in such cases you will get space between
the entries in a vbox.

If you add
        \offinterlineskip
as the first thing inside your \vtop, I think it should work for you.
(It works for me, anyway.)

You might consider using something like the following (admittedly it is a
bit obsessively commented), in case you find it easier to use in some
cases.  Or even if you find the definition somehow illuminating.

% Define this function once
\def\frameit#1{%  modified version where the lines on left & bottom have 0 size
  \hbox{%                   So we can back up horizontally after hrules drawn
    \vbox{%                      Cuz we're stacking things vertically
        \hrule          %            First, the top edge
        \hbox{%                      Then an hbox which has...
            \vrule      %                  the left edge
            \hbox{#1}%                     the contents
            \vrule      %                  and the right edge
        }%
        \hrule          %            Now the bottom edge
        \setbox0=\vbox{\hrule}%      And back up over that edge so that boxes
        \vskip-\ht0 \vskip-\dp0%        stacked vertically fit together
    }%
    \setbox1=\hbox{\vrule}%
    \hskip-\wd1%                     Finally backspace over the right edge so
  }%                                    that boxes next to each other merge
}

% And get that box you are looking for:
\frameit{\hbox to 4cm{\hss\vrule height 5.3 cm width 0pt}}

% Or a box with no border around something else:
\frameit{This is some text in a box.}


                                Jim

P.S. If you use some brain-dead OS and/or mail program that likes to turn
multiple-space sequences into non-breakable spaces, the above may crash and
burn unless you sanitize it.  It was fine when it left here.