How to hide any content?

25 Jul 2024

      I have a strange issue with some macros that are creating extraspaces between paragraphs. Note these macros shouldn’t create anycontent, as they define content that will be sent to registers andcontent that is used for page references. Its more like invisibledata, perhaps the word is “metadata” and other parts of thedocument need to know it and refer to it, but nothing should berendered there.

 As best as I canunderstand, when ConTeXt sees one of these macros, it creates avertical space after the paragraph, draws nothing, then createsanother vertical space after that, before drawing the next paragraph,so the result is something close to three lines of space. Whenappearing after a section title, its also as if there is an emptyline, then blank space, then the first paragraph of content appears.
Sample of what the rendered document looks like:

-----
Section Title
.<--if the macro is placed here, a huge empty space after thesection title is there 

.<-- I’m using these dots to represent empty lines

Loremipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmodtempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minimveniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip exea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit involuptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa quiofficia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.\mymacro{}<--even ifthe macro is placed here, still in the paragraph, it creates a break

.

.<--the macro appears here, there is an empty space above and before

.

Loremipsum odor amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Imperdiet suspendisseporttitor tempus arcu turpis cras posuere varius. Volutpat posueresemper nunc metus fermentum egestas? Aenean diam nisl tortor fuscefacilisis hendrerit dolor penatibus. Lectus interdum platea rhoncusat leo; ut mi duis. Nisi vehicula morbi curabitur mus urna sodalessuspendisse sodales. Viverra inceptos sem aenean ultricies congueligula condimentum maecenas. Convallis in elementum risus nec tacitibibendum faucibus ac nascetur. Nulla ligula auctor placerat dignissiminceptos. Felis nulla quam viverra augue maximus hendrerit ipsum.
. <--where the macro doesn’t appear, the spacing between paragraphs isfine (here, no macro, so one line of empty space, not three)

Loremipsum odor amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Turpis himenaeosconubia neque fringilla neque class. Elementum per fermentum nostraullamcorper lacinia tortor pellentesque facilisis. Himenaeos sociosqutellus aptent rhoncus dignissim himenaeos aliquam? Nisi sagittiseuismod tincidunt penatibus eget tristique? Sed nam elit sapientellus mus libero. Consectetur nascetur nec metus pretium hacmolestie. Convallis lacinia quam efficitur convallis; metus purusaliquet.

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I’ve analyzed themacros carefully, even rebuilt them. Yet, no matter my attempts torecreate and rewrite the code from scratch, they always create thisvertical space. They shouldn’t create any content, nor should anyevidence of their existence be visible to readers.

I’ve tried formonths to find a way to hide these macros, rewriting the code itselfmany times, as I can’t see any reason why its creating anything atall, and also trying to find ways to hide the “blank” contentthat gets rendered:

\starteffect[hidden]\mymacro{}\stopeffect

\color[white]{\mymacro}

\setbox\scratchbox=\vbox{\mymacro}
\startnointerference\mymacro\stopnointerference
\inmargin{\mymacro}

Thesesolutions either entirely don’t remove the extra page break, orlead to the actual content within breaking: for instance, if there’san \index{} entry inside the macro, its page number won’t renderproperly in the end-of-document index. Or if there’s a \reference,other code attempting to display the page number just shows “page,??”.

Isthere a way to completely hide content, such that nothing at all isrendered on the page and nothing occupies extra blank space, but thatdoesn’t brak indexes, cross-references, registers, etc.?

--Joel

Joel

Taco Hoekwater

Henning Hraban Ramm

Joel

Hans Hagen

Joel

Hans Hagen

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