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I am trying to edit the style svmono.cls to tweak the default spacings, but there are entries whose values are not clear to me. In particular, what are \z@ and \p@ in the definitions in lines 244 and 587 (see below)? Thanks, Jorge.

EXCERPT FROM svmono.cls:

\setlength{\parskip}{\z@ \@plus \p@}

\renewcommand\section{\@startsection{section}{1}{\z@}%
                       {-30\p@}% \p@lus -4\p@ \@minus -4\p@}%
                       {16\p@}% \p@lus 4\p@ \@minus 4\p@}%
                       {\normalfont\secsize\secstyle
                        \rightskip=\z@ \@plus 8em\pretolerance=10000 }}
dontpanic
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    \z@ is 0pt and \p@ is 1pt, so -4\p@ is 4pt. – egreg Apr 26 '18 at 21:49
  • BTW, I'm looking to the class file itself because I was unable to read some spacing values using "\the" commands within my code (e.g. \the\textfloatsep). For instance, I can tweak the spacing before \section using \titlespace, but it seems it's impossible to use it to read the spacing values. – dontpanic Apr 26 '18 at 21:52
  • Thanks egreg! (I guess -4\p@ would be -4pt, right?). But, why don't people write directly -4pt? What is the usefulness of an expression such as "\z@ @plus \p@" instead of "1pt"? – dontpanic Apr 26 '18 at 21:57
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    it's quicker and saves memory see https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55400/what-does-z-do/55401#55401 – David Carlisle Apr 26 '18 at 21:58
  • but why use a publisher style and change things? the purpose of a publisher style is to remove choice from authors and force a house style, it is better to use a generic class such as article or memoir or the koma classes if you are not bound to publisher house styles – David Carlisle Apr 26 '18 at 21:59
  • @David. I see your point! In this case I'm just using it as a template--I don't expect to send the draft to the actual publisher (I just like the look!) – dontpanic Apr 26 '18 at 22:03
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    0pt plus 1pt is not 0pt it is a stretchy (rubber) length with natural width 0pt and allowed to stretch to 1pt. – David Carlisle Apr 26 '18 at 22:03

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