scope-dependent default settings

[tomeichlersmith]

I think the most elegant solution would be to wait until after user-defined element functions are available in Typst, making it possible to use set rules directly. I believe this is related to user-defined types typst/typst#147 although I am unfamiliar with the details.

A work around that folks can use (or could be implemented into zero) is to avoid state and use let and with to have local copies of functions. But that is more annoying for the nested configuration (like round) where I need to repeat the sub-parameters that aren't changing to ensure they aren't lost.

Of course, another solution is to "reset" the state at the end of the scope (is there a way to do this automatically? I don't think so) or use some combination of global-state (for document-wide default parameters) and local function copies (for parameters that change within the document).

I just want to say thank you for this great package. I understand that this particular issue is low priority - I only need to regulary change round: (precision: N) because I am passing float to num so I can both present the number to the reader and use it later to calculate the answer to the practice problem. I'm mainly making this issue so that whenever Typst gets user-defined types and you begin refactoring this package, I'd request that you check if the global state could just be replaced by using Typst-native set rules (maybe by having your num type conform to some "element-function" requirements).

[Mc-Zen]

Hi @tomeichlersmith ,

I understand that this particular issue is low priority.

Actually, I think this issue is quite important and I am myself very much annoyed with it! It's just that there isn't a lot to be done about it − that is, at the moment. State changes are unfortunately not scoped but this will be entirely solved with user-defined types, as you already mentioned! My plan is to have something like this

#num(..)

#[ 
  #set zero.round(precision: 2)

  #num(1e12) 

] // end of scope: former precision is restored

I guarantee that Zero will switch to user-defined types as soon as they are available! I have been stressing the need for types to the team for almost two years ^^

But that is more annoying for the nested configuration (like round) where I need to repeat the sub-parameters that aren't changing to ensure they aren't lost.

Can you explain which sub-parameters you need to repeat?

[tomeichlersmith]

The mode sub-parameter would either need to be set globally with set-round(mode: "figures") or repeated when I re-define num in the inner-scope. In the example image above, I do neither of these options and you can see that the mode went back to the package-default places (2 digits after decimal) rather than figures (2 significant figures). Specifically for the example I have above, you can get around this repetition of sub-parameters by setting document-wide defaults using the state and local defaults using the function override.

[Mc-Zen]

Ah yes, I see. This happens when you create an alias of num and then create another (more scoped) alias of num based on the former. The .with syntax by Typst applies no folding of parameters.