woods@eci386.uucp (Greg A. Woods) (04/11/91)
In article <2570002@hpcc01.HP.COM> burch@hpcc01.HP.COM (Jeff Burch) writes: > I am using the MM macro package for nroff and need to know the trick to > escape a back slash for a ".VL" label. For example: >[....] > I have tried putting "\\" or "\\\" rather than "\" on the ".LI" line > without any luck. Since the '\' is the escape character, and since troff can sometimes interpret text several times (eg. in diversions), use of '\' must be sort of recursive (i.e. one get's stripped off each time the text is read), one either has to change the escape charater to something else, or use the special character "escape", which prints the equivalent of the current escape character ("\e"). It is in The Fine Manual! :-) > How in the heck does one learn how to read these macros??? One doesn't.... these are the "compacted" versions, with what little comments and indendation from the sources removed.... at least not without going slightly insane! I usually re-indent them if I must try to read them. There's also macref from DWB that will do cross-reference listings. -- Greg A. Woods woods@{eci386,gate,robohack,ontmoh,tmsoft}.UUCP ECI and UniForum Canada +1-416-443-1734 [h] +1-416-595-5425 [w] VE3TCP Toronto, Ontario CANADA Political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible-ORWELL