[OS X TeX] Too many Underfull \hbox warnings?

[Ross Moore]

Hello Don,

Sent from my iPad

On 17/10/2010, at 6:45 AM, Don Green Dragon <fergdc at Shaw.ca> wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
> 
> I’ve been working on a document which currently produces about 60 pages in the PDF file. Now and  then I like to check the`console’ file and note whatever complaints are lodged.
> 
> Consistently, I get complaints about «Underfull \hbox» which I do not understand. For example
> 
> Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 872--873
> 
> and when I look to lines 872-873 I find:
> 
> 872  \textbf{Length or Norm of a Vector}\\[-18pt]
> 873  \end{defn}
> 

You are not using \\ properly.
It is for breaking a line of text which is to continue on the next line.
But here you have no continuation, so TeX says it is Underfull.

Perhaps what you really want is

     \par \skip{-21pt}
allowing 3pt of parskip. 



> which is part of a slightly larger construction:
> 
> 870  \begin{defn}		% Definition 2.4
> 871  \label{defn2-4}
> 872  \textbf{Length or Norm of a Vector}\\[-18pt]
> 873  \end{defn}
> 
> and in the preface I have introduced a {defn} environment as follows:
> 
> \newtheorem{defn}{Definition}[chapter]
> 
> i.e., ‘definitions’ have their own counter. I am acutely aware that in some sense lines 870-873 use the \newtheorem construction only to keep track of the numbering of the definitions. The actual body of the definition actually follows the closing «\end{defn}» part in order to avoid the annoying (to me) use of an italic font in the body of the definition.
> 
> Still, I don’t understand the complaint about line 872. The source file typesets nicely, and I get what I want, but I wonder about all the warnings!

Your coding has that you want to do something, then not done it. Hence you get a complaint about inconsistency. 


> 
> Is TeXShop so insightful that it simply upbraids me about using the \newtheorem structure in an ‘inappropriate’ manner?
> 
> Don Green Dragon
> fergdc at Shaw.ca



Hope this helps,

      Ross