Why extra glue on LaTeX \small call?

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Article #1442

#1442

From: Dan Jacobson, Naperville, IL
Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1990 11:48

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1242 bytes

What's the deal here:
\setbox4=\hbox{{\small M{\small M}}}\nonstopmode\showbox4
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Two M's together, right?

This is TeX, C Version 2.991 (no format preloaded) [...]
LaTeX Version 2.09 <26 Feb 1988> [...]
Document Style `article' <16 Mar 88>. [...]
> \box4=
\hbox(6.14998+0.0)x23.37206
.\glue 3.33333 plus 1.66666 minus 1.11111
.\ninrm M
.\glue 3.08331 plus 1.5401 minus 1.0288
.\ninrm M

Why the glue (that makes spaces on my output)?  (Saying "{\small{M}}" or
moving the inner braces around doesn't stamp it out either, of course.)
This happens for all the sizes below \normalsize.  In plain TeX doing
the same with \ninerm has no problem.  Is it my .tfm's?  (This user's
expertise level="clodsburger".)
-- 
Dan Jacobson AT&T Bell Labs 45262 IH 1D-213, Naperville IL USA 1-708-979-6364
danj1@ihlpa.ATT.COM

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewse!danj1
From: danj1@cbnewse.ATT.COM (Dan Jacobson, Naperville, IL)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Why extra glue on LaTeX \small call?
Message-ID: <12580@cbnewse.ATT.COM>
Date: 13 Jan 90 11:48:33 GMT
Reply-To: danj1@ihlpa.ATT.COM (Dan Jacobson)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Naperville IL, USA
Lines: 22