LEFT-CENTER-RIGHT

[ROBERT HOLMGREN]

Jim: Yup, I can see that both your proposals work:

 A)     «rha«rm71»«ts40c,70r»TEXT«tab»TEXT«tab»TEXT>

 B)     «ts40c,60»TEXT«tab»TEXT«tab»«ld»TEXT

 But, to be implemented generically, your solutions sorely require to be
controlled via XPL (not that mine isn't kludgy too). In routine A), you have
to get LM and RM into numeric variables, you have to split the 70-10 difference
to get «ts40c», you have to add 70+1 to get «rm71», and then (if not a
RunningHeader but just ordinary text) you gotta restore your old defaults. No
big deal, but... native would be better. The «tab»«ld» business in routine B)
is especially instructive; for the life of me, I couldn't figure out why this
wouldn't work:

      «ts40c»left«tab»center«ld»right

 That «tab»«ld» strikes me as a genuine classic among XyQuirks! Utterly
unintuitive. And yet -- gosh -- there it is, smack in Note #3 on p. 7-335.
Serves me right for not reading the Manual.

 Seriously, the truth is that the way FL-FC-FR take effect on the current line,
with the last-stated Flush format being operative no matter what precedes, is a
long-time (II+) absurdity that should be junked. Doncha think? They should
operate immediately, until overridden, e.g.

      «fl»left«fc»center«fr»right

 *That* would be the logical solution to this whole thing.