Points

The macros
point,
subpoint and
subsubpoint exist to make it easy to deal with itemized lists having up to three levels of indentation. The first level of indentation is the smallest and is generated by typing the command
point followed by the text associated with that point. Note that unlike the reference or footnote macros, the text associated with a
point does not need to be enclosed in braces. Points, etc. are constructed using the
hangindent command and so TEX accepts all of the text up to the next
par (or blank line) and formats it as you desire. For this reason, if a point is to consist of more than one paragraph do not use the
par command to generate the second paragraph but, instead, use the special command
subpar. In addition to indenting the material to follow, the command
point also generates a number for the point and attaches it to the left of the first line. You have seen examples of points in other parts of this writeup; go back and look at them if my sentences are confusing. Each time you type
point PHYZZX generates a new paragraph, increases the number of the last point by one and appends this to the left of the first line of the new point. Obviously, this works well until you finish with a given set of points and then decide you want to make a new list of points at a later point in the same paper. Except in unusual circumstances you would like the first item on this list to be labelled 1, and not start up from the number assigned to the last point in the previous list. To avoid this sort of calamity you use a special command to begin a new set of points namely, the command
pointbegin. (Clearly this choice of nomenclature is far from sprightly and imaginative, but it is easy to guess what the correct command is even if you have forgotten it.)

As an example suppose you type
pointbegin This is the first point I wish to make.
point This is the second point.
point I am not very imaginative, so this is the third point. You then obtain This is the first point I wish to make. This is the second point. I am not very imaginative, so this is the third point.

You then return to typing ordinary text by following the text of the last point in your list with a
par or blank line.