[comp.text.tex] LaTeX bug/feature/gotcha

teexdwu@ioe.lon.ac.uk (DOMINIK WUJASTYK) (06/02/91)

The situation was this:  I had an "enumerate" environment in one place,

\begin{enumerate}
\item ...
\item ...
\item ...
\end{enumerate}

and then elsewhere, but nearby,  I had a float, a "table" environment,
which had another "enumerate" environment in it:

\begin{table}{p}

\begin{enumerate}
\item ...
\item ...
\item ...
\end{enumerate}

\end{table}

Being only one level deep, the enumerated items in my table were 
numbered 1, 2, 3 ..., and this was important since the numbers were a 
key to figures in some artwork that appeared in the chapter.

I wanted the float to appear as a whole page float at a particular point 
in the text, so I was jiggling the position of the whole table in the 
file, as one often has to in these situations.

Quite by accident, I placed the table in the middle of the other
"enumerate" environment, like this,

\begin{enumerate}
\item ...
\item ...

\begin{table}
\begin{enumerate}
\item ...
\item ...
\item ...
\end{enumerate}
\end{table}

\item ...
\end{enumerate}

The table appeard at the right place in the printed page, so I was happy,
until the copy editor pointed out that the list of items in the float was
now numbered a, b, c, d, ...!

Of course what had happenend is obvious, once you see it.  LaTeX saw
one enumerate inside another, so it changed counters, as it normally
does.

But in this case, my intuition would be that the float should not
count as being truly embedded in the text at this point.  I judge it
to be a separate entity, and I don't expect it to be affected by its
surrounding environment in this way. 

What do you think?  Bug for fixing in LaTeX 2.10/3?  Or is this what
you think is proper behaviour?

Dominik