sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) (01/09/85)
How do you change the line length
in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried
the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it
would not work. As usual, it is a
BSD 4.2 11/780, and nroff (no Typesetter)
I believe it has to do with the LL reg
but don't know how to do it.
Spiros
{akgua,ut-sally}!usl!sigma
Thank you in advance.
P.S Enter it to the stupid question
of the year award, but our local nroff
and macro guru is on vacation...rpw3@redwood.UUCP (Rob Warnock) (01/11/85)
+--------------- | How do you change the line length in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried | the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it would not work. | {akgua,ut-sally}!usl!sigma | P.S Enter it to the stupid question of the year award... +--------------- You know, I used to have problems with that, and asked MY "stupid question", and got an answer from an older-timer, so now I pass it on to you... Setting the registers (variables) such as "LL" is not sufficient if you want the change to occur immediately (or in some cases to stick at all?). You need to also change the underlying "nroff" register. The following is what I typically use as a preamble: .RT You need one "ms" command to initialize things. .nr LL 7i Set the line length (width) that "ms" knows. .ll 7i Tell "nroff" about it. .nr PO 0.75i Move the page over a bit. .po 0.75i Make sure "nroff" agrees. .DA 11 Jan 1985 (Personal preference... I like the date it was EDITED, not the date it was printed.) .LP Or .TL or .PP etc. Hope that helps. Rob Warnock Systems Architecture Consultant UUCP: {ihnp4,ucbvax!dual}!fortune!redwood!rpw3 DDD: (415)572-2607 USPS: 510 Trinidad Lane, Foster City, CA 94404
jaap@mcvax.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) (01/13/85)
In article <199@usl.UUCP> sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) writes: >How do you change the line length >in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried >the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it >would not work. > ..... >P.S Enter it to the stupid question >of the year award, but our local nroff >and macro guru is on vacation... Looks like a nice entry. Why don't you read the manual? Although it might look a bit obscure in the N/Troff manual, you would have found out that the .nr request will take default values as units. Guessing that you want to change the line length to 7.5 Pica's, you should have said: .nr LL 7.5P
dan@rna.UUCP (Dan Ts'o) (01/14/85)
In article <mcvax.409> jaap@mcvax.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) writes: >In article <199@usl.UUCP> sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) writes: > >How do you change the line length > >in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried > >the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it > >would not work. > > ..... > >P.S Enter it to the stupid question > >of the year award, but our local nroff > >and macro guru is on vacation... > >Looks like a nice entry. Why don't you read the manual? Although it >might look a bit obscure in the N/Troff manual, you would have found >out that the .nr request will take default values as units. >Guessing that you want to change the line length to 7.5 Pica's, >you should have said: > .nr LL 7.5P Well, that probably isn't the problem. The probable problem is "documented" in an obscure sentence in the MS documentation. You often need to follow the .nr command with the corresponding nroff command in order to get an immediate effect since the .nr simply changes the value of a number register used by MS and MS won't recognize the change until it is "entered" by a real MS macro like .PP . Thus you often want: .nr LL 7.5i .ll 7.5i Dan
sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) (01/16/85)
Newsgroups: net.unix In article <199@usl.UUCP> sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) writes: >How do you change the line length >in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried >the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it >would not work. > ..... >P.S Enter it to the stupid question >of the year award, but our local nroff >and macro guru is on vacation... >>Looks like a nice entry. Why don't you read the manual? Although it >>might look a bit obscure in the N/Troff manual, you would have found >>out that the .nr request will take default values as units. >>Guessing that you want to change the line length to 7.5 Pica's, >>you should have said: .nr LL 7.5P I think the real mistake lies in the attempt to specify line length in INCHES (You ethnocentrist Americans :-)), rather than, the most reasonable CHARACTERS. I have been using Honeywell's "runoff" text processing system on a 68/80 Multics for a long time and all arguments are in number of characters or line. Same thing on the WORDIX word processing system on the IBM PC/XT. The documentation IS cryptic, and No one says that you have to use the little "i". I got it all OK now, but I guess I'm going to implement macros for Multics runoff. It's a pity, n/troff has such a potential but screwy docs.... -- Spiros Spiros Triantafyllopoulos <> USENET {ut-sally, akgua}!usl!sigma Computer Science Dept, USL <> CSNet TriantafyllopoulosS%usl@csnet-relay.ARPA "This file contains no opinions whatsoever"
ted@usceast.UUCP (Ted Nolan) (01/18/85)
In article <409@mcvax.UUCP> jaap@mcvax.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) writes: >In article <199@usl.UUCP> sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) writes: > >How do you change the line length > >in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried > >the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it > >would not work. > > ..... > >P.S Enter it to the stupid question > >of the year award, but our local nroff > >and macro guru is on vacation... > >Looks like a nice entry. Why don't you read the manual? Although it >might look a bit obscure in the N/Troff manual, you would have found >out that the .nr request will take default values as units. >Guessing that you want to change the line length to 7.5 Pica's, >you should have said: > .nr LL 7.5P This isn't quite fair, the documentation for nroff and -ms is spread out in too many places and is not generally kept online under the man command anyway (except for ms(7) and nroff(1) (which may fall under roff(1) in v7) and are not too helpful) I think probably what is needed is to set the line length to 7.5 inches .nr LL 7.5i should do this, but my documentation warns that it will not take effect until the next paragraph, if you need it right away, you should follow the above by .ll 7.5i I think this will work. Ted Nolan ..usceast!ted -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ted Nolan ...decvax!mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!usceast!ted 6536 Brookside Circle ...akgua!usceast!ted Columbia, SC 29206 ("Deep space is my dwelling place, the stars my destination") -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
gwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (01/20/85)
> I think the real mistake lies in the attempt to specify line length > in INCHES (You ethnocentrist Americans :-)), rather than, the most > reasonable CHARACTERS. I have been using Honeywell's "runoff" text > processing system on a 68/80 Multics for a long time and all arguments > are in number of characters or line. Same thing on the WORDIX word processing > system on the IBM PC/XT. The documentation IS cryptic, and > No one says that you have to use the little "i". I got it all OK > now, but I guess I'm going to implement macros for Multics runoff. > It's a pity, n/troff has such a potential but screwy docs.... Uh-huh. How big IS a "character", anyway? My printer and typesetters have several character widths, even at the same point size. I bet those Brand-X word processors you like so much would have fun with these devices.
geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) (01/22/85)
> I think the real mistake lies in the attempt to specify line length > in INCHES (You ethnocentrist Americans :-)), rather than, the most > reasonable CHARACTERS. Uh, gee, have you tried ".ll 19c"? T/nroff knows about a number of different units: inches, centimeters, characters (ems and ens), and points are a few. -- Geoff Kuenning ...!ihnp4!trwrb!desint!geoff
jaap@mcvax.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) (01/22/85)
In article <113@redwood.UUCP> rpw3@redwood.UUCP (Rob Warnock) writes: > > .RT You need one "ms" command to initialize things. > .nr LL 7i Set the line length (width) that "ms" knows. > .ll 7i Tell "nroff" about it. > .nr PO 0.75i Move the page over a bit. > .po 0.75i Make sure "nroff" agrees. > .DA 11 Jan 1985 (Personal preference... I like the date it was > EDITED, not the date it was printed.) > .LP Or .TL or .PP etc. The .RT should be after the initialisations. As a matter of fact, the .LP will call .RT as well, so you can remove it completly. The .ll isn't necessary as well.
sigma@usl.UUCP (Spyridon Triantafyllopoulos) (01/28/85)
Doug Gwyn writes on my comment on inches/#characters on n/troff: [original article (mine :-)): > I have been using Honeywell's "runoff" text > processing system on a 68/80 Multics for a long time and all arguments > are in number of characters or line. Same thing on the WORDIX word processing > system on the IBM PC/XT. The documentation IS cryptic, and > No one says that you have to use the little "i". I got it all OK > now, but I guess I'm going to implement macros for Multics runoff. > It's a pity, n/troff has such a potential but screwy docs.... [Doug's answer] Uh-huh. How big IS a "character", anyway? My printer and typesetters have several character widths, even at the same point size. I bet those Brand-X word processors you like so much would have fun with these devices. [Me again] Well, I don't use a typesetter anyway. We have QMS laser printers that take care of all these little bittle stuff. The good thing is that it is much simpler to use Honeywell's runoff + laser.ec (a laser script) compared to anything I have seen on the troff documentation (or whatever they call it). WORDIX is also very good. It is almost compatible with runoff and gives very good results on our TI 855 printers. geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes: Uh, gee, have you tried ".ll 19c"? T/nroff knows about a number of different units: inches, centimeters, characters (ems and ens), and points are a few. A saving opinion follows from Kentucky: Actually .ll is NOT on the list of nroff commands that work with -ms. So it won't work. What will happen is that the next PARAGRAPH will have that page width set, and the rest of the document will have the default. David Herron; ARPA-> "ukma!david"@ANL-MCS or david%ukma.uucp@anl-mcs.arpa [me again] Specifying character # is much more convenient if you work with standard printers (no typesetters). But the convenience of typesetting is not overlooked. I guess the president of DEC was right about the 5 feet of VMS manuals after all.... (a little philosophy: I guess we have to live with the documentation. A while ago I was using the Multics Relational Data Store, a DBMS for the Multics system. There was a lot of screwy documentation over there too. An inquiry to the local guru faculty brought: "with only 28 Multics sites around, what do you expect!!!") -- Spiros Spiros Triantafyllopoulos <> USENET {ut-sally, akgua}!usl!sigma Computer Science Dept, USL <> CSNet TriantafyllopoulosS%usl@csnet-relay.ARPA "This file contains no opinions whatsoever"