[net.unix] What do I do with ptx

lorien@dartvax.UUCP (Lorien Y. Pratt) (04/20/84)

I don't have time to learn the innards of nroff.  I have a large file
of ptx (1) output that I'd like to be converted to a meaningful 
permuted index that can be listed at a terminal, so I guess it needs
to be run through nroff with some macro that knows how to handle ptx
output.  Could somebody tell me how to do this?

      --Lorien Y. Pratt
	Dartmouth College Library
	Hanover, NH  03755

	decvax!dartvax!lorien

henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (04/22/84)

Our manual page for ptx(1) contains the following (local) addition:

	.SH EXAMPLE
	The following is a reasonably-minimal
	set of
	.I nroff
	statements which will format
	.I ptx
	output reasonably;  the style is similar to the index for this manual.
	The spacings may need adjustment for different output devices.
	.PP
	.RS
	.nf
	\&.de xx
	\&.if !""\\\\$1" \\\\$1\\fI\\a\\fR\\\\$2\\t\\\\$3\\fI\\a\\fR\\t\\\\$5
	\&.if !""\\\\$4" \\t\\\\$2\\t\\\\$3\\fI\\a\\fR\\\\$4\\t\\\\$5
	\&.if ""\\\\$1\\\\$4" \\t\\\\$2\\t\\\\$3\\fI\\a\\fR\\t\\\\$5
	\&..
	\&.nf
	\&.ta 3.7iR 3.95iL 7.65iR 7.8iR
	.RE

You should probably run this through nroff to make sure you don't get
confused about how many backslashes go where in the final product.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry