Format long abstracts properly

[actapia]

This pull request is to fix #13 , which describes a problem where long abstracts can cause texts to overflow the page and overlap signatures. The changes in this pull request should cause the template to instead split long abstracts across multiple pages.

I've attached the output of diff-pdf for PDFs produced from the example thesis before and after the changes. The new version is not exactly the same as the original, but much of the document, including the main body of the document, is unchanged.

Although the "Abstract of Thesis" text and the title are in the same position, the abstract itself is slightly lower in the new version. The \vspace* at https://github.com/actapia/uk_thesis/blob/95a52eec7b91c65b1088ace7d6d575b78c24ad33/uk_thesis.cls#L182 could probably be adjusted to make it exactly the same, but I didn't like the idea of using an apparently very arbitrary number of inches for the spacing there.

The signatures are placed so that there is roughly 2 inches from the bottom of the signature to the bottom of the page, as suggested by this guide.

The Dedication page text is also slightly higher in the new version. Admittedly, I don't quite understand what ultimately causes that, but I figure it's probably an acceptably small deviation.

[NelsonAPenn]

Thanks for the PR! I'll look into this this weekend.
The space on the dedication page sounds familiar:

Could it be caused by something like below?

#3

[actapia]

Thanks for the PR! I'll look into this this weekend. The space on the dedication page sounds familiar:

Could it be caused by something like below?

#3

I haven't had any luck so far trying to determine why the Dedication page is higher with these changes. When I use

  \showboxdepth=\maxdimen
  \showboxbreadth=\maxdimen

and then \showlists after the DEDICATION text in thesis.cls, I get this for the original version:

\glue(\topskip) 12.0
\rule(0.0+0.0)x*
\penalty 10000
\glue 0.0 plus 1.0fill
\glue 0.0
\penalty -51
\glue 13.0 plus 7.0 minus 8.0
\glue(\parskip) 0.0 plus 1.0
\glue(\parskip) 0.0
\glue(\baselineskip) 6.3
\hbox(8.2+0.0)x433.62001, glue set 178.22636fil
.\glue(\leftskip) 0.0 plus 1.0fil
.\hbox(0.0+0.0)x0.0
..\glue 0.0
..\glue 0.0
..\glue -5.87494
..\hbox(0.0+0.0)x0.0
...\pdfcolorstack 0 push {0 g 0 G}
...\pdfcolorstack 0 pop
..\glue 5.87494
.\penalty 0
.\OT1/cmr/m/n/12 D
% ...

and this for the new version:

\glue(\topskip) 12.0
\rule(0.0+0.0)x*
\penalty 10000
\glue 0.0 plus 1.0fill
\glue 0.0
\penalty -51
\glue 13.0 plus 7.0 minus 8.0
\glue(\parskip) 0.0 plus 1.0
\glue(\parskip) 0.0
\glue(\lineskip) 1.0
\hbox(8.2+0.0)x433.62001, glue set 178.22636fil
.\glue(\leftskip) 0.0 plus 1.0fil
.\hbox(0.0+0.0)x0.0
..\glue 0.0
..\glue 0.0
..\glue -5.87494
..\hbox(0.0+0.0)x0.0
...\pdfcolorstack 0 push {0 g 0 G}
...\pdfcolorstack 0 pop
..\glue 5.87494
.\penalty 0
.\OT1/cmr/m/n/12 D
% ...

I'm not sure where the difference comes from. I did find that there is possibly another (related?) problem with extra pages being created when the dedication is long; I've made an issue, #15 , for that.