[net.unix] tbl, beginner's difficulty with 'box'

wa371@sdcc12.UUCP (wa371) (05/26/85)

When I give a 'box' directive in the tbl input, it prints the vertical
lines of the box one at a time, at the BOTTOM of the page, AFTER it
has printed everything else.
I tried the examples given by McGilton and Morgan on page 405ff
and had no better luck.
What I am doing wrong?

Bernd <bear-nd>
UUCP: ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc12!wa371,   ARPA: sdcsvax!sdcc12!wa371@nosc
            *** hooray for USENET ***

gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (05/27/85)

> When I give a 'box' directive in the tbl input, it prints the vertical
> lines of the box one at a time, at the BOTTOM of the page, AFTER it
> has printed everything else.

Sounds like you are not getting the proper reverse line-feeds for your
terminal.  Either
	(a)  You are not specifying the proper terminal type to nroff
		(-T option), or
	(b)  Your terminal type is not known to nroff, or
	(c)  Your terminal does not support reverse paper motion.
In the latter two cases, use "col" to turn the bidirectional paper
motions in the nroff output into a single-direction page image for
priniting on your terminal.

steven@luke.UUCP (Steven List @ Benetics Corp, MT.View, CA) (05/28/85)

> When I give a 'box' directive in the tbl input, it prints the vertical
> lines of the box one at a time, at the BOTTOM of the page, AFTER it
> has printed everything else.
> I tried the examples given by McGilton and Morgan on page 405ff
> and had no better luck.
> What I am doing wrong?
> 
> Bernd <bear-nd>
> UUCP: ...!ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcc12!wa371,   ARPA: sdcsvax!sdcc12!wa371@nosc
>             *** hooray for USENET ***

try the following:

   tbl <file> | nroff -Tlp | col > <outfile>

the -T option to nroff indicates the printer type (lp is default line
printer).  Col takes all the repositioning commands generated by tbl
and massages it all together to make something approaching a readable
document.
                                     /-\  
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:                  Steven List @ Benetics Corporation                         :
:                              (415) 940-6300                                 :
:                  ..!hplabs!oliveb!bene!luke!steven                          :
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
                                     \-/                                       
-- 
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:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
:                  Steven List @ Benetics Corporation                         :
:                              (415) 940-6300                                 :
:                    hplabs!oliveb!bene!luke!steven                           :
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
                                     \-/