jab@uokvax.UUCP (08/05/84)
#R:druny:-98000:uokvax:6100039:000:901 uokvax!jab Aug 5 12:11:00 1984 /***** uokvax:net.unix / druny!neal / 4:40 pm Aug 2, 1984 */ Ok, I give up! I tried putting ".." at the begining of each line, but that sometimes leaves bird droppings in my output. I tried putting '\"' at the beginning of each line, but if I do that for several lines in a row, a large blank area appears in the output. So how do you put a block comment in? -Neal McBurnett, ihnp4!druny!neal, 303-538-4852 /* ---------- */ This is kinda sick, admittedly. The \" tells nroff/troff to ignore everything up to the next newline, but you end up with TWO newline characters in the nroff/troff input stream after processing the comment. You need to tell nroff/troff to ignore the fact that we just skipped a line, which normally would generate a line break, by using comments as shown below: '\" This is a commented line that doesn't generate a '\" line break on the output. Jeff Bowles Lisle, IL
johnl@haddock.UUCP (08/06/84)
Try this: .ig zz nroff will ignore this all the way down to here .zz (That's .ig for ignore.) John Levine, ima!johnl
west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) (08/14/84)
Another oft-used (and documented) way to make block-comments in nroff/troff is by using the ".ig" (ignore) macro. This can be used as below [indented by one tab for this example only, of course]: .ig This is a block comment in nroff/troff. See section 20 (miscellaneous) of the reference manual (``Nroff/Troff User's Manual'', by Ossanna of Bell). Nothing in here should have any effect upon the document. I indent [again] out of personal preference. Terminate with double-dot: .. or: .ig EE You can specify that you want to end the comment with something other than "..", as in: .EE I don't know whether there is a conflict in naming here -- e.g., whether a ".EE" macro would be lost in the previous example. I'd assume the worst. And, as mentioned before, there is this form of block-comments: ' \" The use of the "'" rather than "." is ' \" discussed in the reference manual, section 1.1. ' \" This is really a case of ignoring an unknown ' \" macro -- the``\"'' comments-out the remainder ' \" of the line, guaranteeing non-recognition. It is often dangerous to use the ``\"'' comment on a real line -- in particular, using it on the same line as a ".." will cause problems. For example, don't end a macro like this: .de FU 'bp Man Chew? .. \" end of "FU" <<-- won't work! -- Larry West, UC San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science -- decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- west@NPRDC
jeff@ism780.UUCP (08/23/84)
#R:druny:-98000:ism780:20700005:000:136 ism780!jeff Aug 21 18:26:00 1984 No, when you say .ig EE stuff you want ignored .EE This is included in the output the .EE macro DOES get executed.
west@sdcsla.UUCP (Larry West) (08/25/84)
In article <384@ism780.UUCP> jeff@ism780.UUCP writes: >No, when you say > .ig EE > stuff you want ignored > .EE > This is included in the output > >the .EE macro DOES get executed. Quite true. I neglected to check this, since I always use the default (".ig" ... ".."). Also, note that if "EE" is a string, it will be interpolated. -- Larry West, UC San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science -- decvax!ittvax!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west -- west@NPRDC