[comp.text] DWB pic problem with dotted lines

bp@chorus.fr (Bruno Pillard) (01/23/91)

I wanted to draw (with pic) a box with a dotted line to divide the box
in two parts, so I tried:

 box
 line from last box.w to last box.e dotted

The problem with this, is that the last dot of the line is out of the
box, more or less like this:

----------------
|              |
|..............|.
|              |
|              |
----------------

I've also tried this with the same result:

 box
 line from last box.w right boxwid dotted


I think that the problem is that the first point is not exactly ON the
left border of the box, so the last one is of course off the box.

I've tried this to supress the last dot and the result is more acceptable
but far from perfect:

 box
 line from last box.w right boxwid-boxwid/20 dotted boxwid/20

My best result is to make a shorter and centered line with:

 box
 line from last box.w + boxwid/40,0 right boxwid-(boxwid/20) dotted boxwid/20

But I have to change my macros (too much in my opinion).


Does anyone out there have another (better) solution:

 - A standard way to do this I've not been able to found in the manual

 - A patch to DWB2.0's pic.d/print.c (I have the source)

PS: I don't want (for now) to upgrade to DWB3.1 or use gpic/groff
although I would like to know if they can handle that case correctly

   __                       
  /  )                        Bruno Pillard
 /--<  __  . . __   __        Chorus Systemes
/___/_/ (_(_/_/) )_(_)        6 Avenue Gustave Eiffel
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bp@chorus.fr  (Internet)      Tel: +33 (1) 30 64 82 13

npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson) (01/25/91)

I tried the example exactly as shown and it worked perfectly
for me. Here's a guess. troff has to be told what printer
it's formatting for, so it uses appropriate width tables.
In DWB 3.1 the default is -Tpost (PostScript) but in 2.0
it was the APS 5, which you are unlikely to have. Your troff
is probably choosing an interletter spacing for . appropriate
to the APS, not the printer you are using.
If your troff supports -T, try telling it the type of printer
explicitly.