trivlist (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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#### 8.16.2 `trivlist`: A restricted form of `list`

Synopsis:

    \begin{trivlist}
      ...
    \end{trivlist}

A restricted version of the list environment, in which margins are not indented and an `\item` without an optional argument produces no text. It is most often used in macros, to define an environment where the `\item` command as part of the environment’s definition. For instance, the `center` environment is defined essentially like this:

    \newenvironment{center}
      {\begin{trivlist}\centering\item\relax}
      {\end{trivlist}}

Using `trivlist` in this way allows the macro to inherit some common code: combining vertical space of two adjacent environments; detecting whether the text following the environment should be considered a new paragraph or a continuation of the previous one; adjusting the left and right margins for possible nested list environments.

Specifically, `trivlist` uses the current values of the list parameters (see list), except that `\parsep` is set to the value of `\parskip`, and `\leftmargin`, `\labelwidth`, and `\itemindent` are set to zero.

This example outputs the items as two paragraphs, except that (by default) they have no paragraph indent and are vertically separated.

    \begin{trivlist}
    \item The \textit{Surprise} is not old; no one would call her old.
    \item She has a bluff bow, lovely lines.
    \end{trivlist}

Unofficial LaTeX2e reference manual