hang left and block paragraphs

[Danny Heap]

I am trying to create a paragraph style in a LaTeX document where the
first paragraph is hung left (sometimes called exdented in troff). That
is, the first line of the paragraph runs the full width while subsequent
lines are indented a given amount from the left. I would like
subsequent paragraphs to be indented the same amount from the left, and
to be in block format (no more indent on the first line). I would also
like equations interspersed with these paragraphs to be full measure.
Is there an elegant solution to this?

The solution I am using so far is to use "hangindent," "hangafter," and
"hang" in TeX to create hangleft and indented paragraphs, and then to
call the left-indent command for each paragraph, together with a
\noindent command. This seems a bit awkward, although I can't see how
to solve this using an environment, especially since the equations must
come out to full measure. I seem to need to use the \noindent command,
since setting \parindent to zero points seems to interfere with the
"hangindent," "hangafter," or "hang" commands in TeX.

Any help appreciated.

Danny Heap
UCB Soil Science