colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (06/26/85)
Two-character names must go! But we don't want to break anything. How
about this:
x one-character name
\(xy two-character name
\( xyzabc) n-character name
After all, no two-character name begins with a space. This also allows
\f( xyzabc) n-character font name
\n( xyzabc) n-character number register
\*( xyzabc) n-character string name
and even
\s( 12345) huge point size
It's a little ugly, but it's workable. Comments?
--
Col. G. L. Sicherman
...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!coloneledmoy@ucbopal.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (06/29/85)
In article <877@gloria.UUCP> colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) writes: >Two-character names must go! But we don't want to break anything. How >about this: > > x one-character name > \(xy two-character name > \( xyzabc) n-character name > >After all, no two-character name begins with a space. This also allows > > \f( xyzabc) n-character font name > \n( xyzabc) n-character number register > \*( xyzabc) n-character string name > >and even > > \s( 12345) huge point size > >It's a little ugly, but it's workable. Comments? >-- >Col. G. L. Sicherman >...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel At UC Berkeley Computer Center, we have been running a modified version of ditroff that does what you are talking about, but in a different way. If on the command line, if you specify the -x option, ditroff uses what is called expanded mode. In expanded mode, all commands, macros, diversions, strings and number registers may have up to eight character names. Here is an example: .numreg margin 1i .defstr astring I am a \f[genevaB]string\fP .define header 'space \\n[margin]u 'nospace .. .define footer 'beginpg .. .when 0 header .when -\n[margin]u footer .divert text this is \s[40]some text\s0, \*[astring]. .divert .\" now use diversion .text In addition, the standard two character command names may be used also, with the difference that .nrXX3 now tries to execute the macro nrXX3, rather than set number register XX to 3 (i.e., spaces are required to separate command and macros names from arguments). As you can see, I use square brackets to indicate variable size names for \s, \f, \n, \* and \g. Also, for example, \fX and \f(XX works as before, but now \s takes the same meaning \sN and \s(NN, with variant forms \s+N, \s-N, \s(+NN and \s(-NN. If the -x option is not specified, ditroff acts as before, for compatibility. This version of ditroff also has many advanced features and many new escape sequences. Just to name a few, there is kerning, right to left printing, the escape sequence \?'expression'true'false' that works like expression?true:false in the C language and four different kinds of spaces (the normal breakable and paddable space, the unbreakable and unpaddable space \ , and two new ones, the breakable but unpaddable space and the unbreakable but paddable space). The preprocessors for ditroff have also been modified to access the typesetter description tables (just like ditroff), rather than have it compiled in. And in the case of eqn, the various tuning constants that it uses to position characters has been put into a table, so that they may be tuned for each typesetter. Now for the not so good news. ----------------------------- This version of ditroff is currently only available on machines at UCB, mainly the computer center machines. CSRG, who distribute 4BSD, are considering distributing their own version of ditroff (on a separate license), which has modifications in the graphics area. We are just beginning to negotiate on the combination of these two versions of ditroff to distribute some time in the future, so that there will be only one version of ditroff for Berkeley. Edward Moy Academic Computing Services University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 edmoy@ucbopal.APRA ucbvax!ucbopal!edmoy
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (06/30/85)
> Two-character names must go! But we don't want to break anything. How > about this: > > x one-character name > \(xy two-character name > \( xyzabc) n-character name Better: \[xyzabc]. \[ is not used anywhere, unless somebody has done some really strange things to troff lately. -- "Maturity means doing what's right, not just what's easy." Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (06/30/85)
But why limit it to 8? Someone's going to want to use ``HelveticaLight'' and have to write ``HlvtcLgt'' or something ugly like that. (Doesn't everyone like flexnames?) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 4251) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@maryland
jaap@mcvax.UUCP (Jaap Akkerhuis) (07/03/85)
In article <877@gloria.UUCP> colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) writes: > Two-character names must go! But we don't want to break anything. How > about this: > > x one-character name > \(xy two-character name > \( xyzabc) n-character name > **** NEWS FLASH *** NEWS FLASH **** NEWS FLASH **** According to the latest rumour the next release of ([td]i)troff, scheduled for release in September (but don't hold your breath), will allow the use multi character names for characters as follows: \C'An_arbitrary_long_character_name'
colonel@gloria.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (07/03/85)
> > Two-character names must go! But we don't want to break anything. How > > about this: > > > > x one-character name > > \(xy two-character name > > \( xyzabc) n-character name > > Better: \[xyzabc]. \[ is not used anywhere, unless somebody has done > some really strange things to troff lately. I thought of that, but it won't work for strings. \*[ is used by refer(1). As far as I know, the space convention is the only one that won't break strings, number registers, and fonts. (We can use something prettier if we allow some breakage.) -- Col. G. L. Sicherman ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel