[comp.unix.questions] tbl work with 132 columns?

dave@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (David A Rasmussen) (04/30/88)

Anyone know if tbl can be hacked (and ditroff will take it's output)
to do 132 column stuff?

This came about from a user trying to use SPSSX tables.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Dave Rasmussen c/o Computing Services Division @ U of WI - Milwaukee
Internet: dave@csd4.milw.wisc.edu  Uucp: uwvax!uwmcsd1!uwmcsd4!dave {o,o}
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gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn ) (04/30/88)

In article <5668@uwmcsd1.UUCP> dave@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (David A Rasmussen) writes:
>Anyone know if tbl can be hacked (and ditroff will take it's output)
>to do 132 column stuff?

If by this you mean 132 tabular columns, not 132 character positions,
then the answer is NO.  "tbl" assigns troff register names like crazy,
using successive letters for example.  It runs out of valid names
before 132 of them have been assigned.  I've pretty much fixed this to
work sanely rather than producing random behavior in a total overhaul
of "tbl" that I haven't quite finished, but to do it really right one
needs something like SoftQuad's enhanced version of "troff" ("sqtroff").

Just out of curiosity, how in the world could you view a 132-column
table?  Even with tiny fonts that would still be excessively wide.