Ideally, I would like to be able to skip lines before and after \section
, before and after many environments (theorem, itemize, enumerate, etc.), between \item
s in a list, before and after display-style math, and in several other places. It helps me keep my source code organized.
Unfortunately for me, Donald Knuth decided that a skipped line should have semantic meaning in the source code. I am sure he had good reasons for this, but I personally would be much happier if starting a new paragraph required a \par
command.
I am aware that the conventional solution for code organization is to put a %
symbol at the beginning of lines skipped for non-semantic reasons; however, I find that these extra %
symbols clutter my code and are less useful than purely skipped lines.
The question:
What places, if any, in a conventional LaTeX document can one or more lines be skipped without affecting the output? I recognize that no place can be completely safe if redefinitions are allowed, so assume that one of the standard or AMS document classes is in use, that no additional packages have been loaded, and that the only definitions in the preamble are defining theorem types.
One additional constraint, to distinguish this question from When can I safely add an empty line?: Assume I have no idea how various commands and environments affect vertical mode. If you will, my question is asking for a (not necessarily comprehensive) list of what commands/environments affect vertical mode in such a way that a skipped line before and/or afterwards will have no effect.
\catcode
of^^L
to\active
and redefining it as\outer\def^^L{\par}
inlatex.ltx
?trivlist
will end in vmode.\par
ends a paragraph, not starts oone.\section
is safe since you are starting a new paragraph then anyway so the line makes no difference. Similarly, you can put a blank line between\item
s in a list but not before or after the list or within a single item.