[net.text] mm -o

jrr@bsdpkh.UUCP (james r regan jr) (08/29/86)

I am working with documents that require the section-number format...

How can I output section-numbered pages of text using the mm -o option ?  

guy@sun.uucp (Guy Harris) (09/01/86)

> How can I output section-numbered pages of text using the mm -o option ?  

By reading the section "2.4 Parameters that Can Be Set from the Command
Line" in the "-mm" macro package documentation, paying special attention to
the "-rNn" option, where it says:

	...When "n" is 3, "section-page" numbering {4.5} occurs....

The "-o" option has nothing to do with the way pages are numbered.  It is
merely a way of telling "[nt]roff" to format all pages but print only
selected ones.  One has to be careful in order to allow "-o" to work with
section-page numbering, as "-o" works on "[nt]roff"'s notion of the page
number rather than on the "-mm" package's notion.  As such, you couldn't say

	mm -o1-3,7-8 ....

and expect it to print pages "1-3" and "7-8"; in this case, it will print
the pages with *ordinal numbers* 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8, as the "1-3" means
"pages 1 through 3" and the "7-8" means "pages 7 through 8".  By "pages with
ordinal numbers..." I mean that the effect of this command would be the same
(except for less impact on the world's forests) as "[nt]roff"ing the whole
document and (assuming single-sided printing) throwing all sheets out except
the first, second, third, seventh, and eighth.  Those pages may or may not
have "<section>-1", "<section>-2", etc. printed in the footer.

A way of making this work is to put each section into at least one file, and
to "[nt]roff" the sections separately.  Then, if you do

	"mm -o3 section1"

this will print only the third page of "section1", which would be page
"1-3".  Then you could do

	"mm -o8 section7"

which would print only the eighth page of "section7", which would be page
"7-8".
-- 
	Guy Harris
	{ihnp4, decvax, seismo, decwrl, ...}!sun!guy
	guy@sun.com (or guy@sun.arpa)