[comp.text] need help with vertical spanning in DITROFF tables

beverly@ai.cs.wisc.edu (Beverly Seavey (-Kung)) (11/17/90)

 I am trying to create a table using ditroff and tbl. The last column
 has a block of text. I want the entries in the other columns, which
 each occupy one line only to be centered up and down   relative to the block of text:


	  ____________________________________________________
	  |     |     |     |     | Lots of text here, which  |
	  |  x  |  y  |  z  |  w  | happens to run on for     |
	  |_____|_____|_____|_____|_three lines...____________|
	  |     |     |     |     | Second entry in this field|
	  |  a  |  b  |  c  |  d  | I couldn't draw both text |
	  |_____|_____|_____|_____|_draw_both_text_and_dashes_|


	If for these line I have      :

	a a a a a.
	_
   	 \t \t \t \t T{     /* space-tab-space-tab...*/
    .na
	Lots of text here, which happens to run on for three lines...
	T}
	_
	x\ty\tz\tw\t\^     /* x y z w , pull down text from 1st line */
	 \t \t \t \t \^  /* space-tab-space-tab... pull down text from 1st line */ 
 .....and so on....  .


Instead,for the 1st row I get what looks like:

	 _______________________________________________________
	|     |     |     |     | Lots of text, which happens  |
        |     |     |     |     | to run one, for              |
        |     |     |     |     | three lines...               |
        |  x  |  y  |  z  |  w  |                              |
        |_____|_____|_____|_____|______________________________|

i.e., the formatter waits until after the text field has taken up its 3
lines before even starting the 2nd row for the other fields.
As far as I can tell, this is analogous to the "Interesting places"
example in Unix TBL documentation.
Just for kicks, I tried putting the text as the first column. THat didn't
help either. Am I doing something wrong or is our tbl not the same as the
one documented?

henry@angel.Eng.Sun.COM (Henry McGilton) (11/19/90)

In article <11739@spool.cs.wisc.edu>, beverly@ai.cs.wisc.edu (Beverly Seavey (-Kung)) writes:

    *  I am trying to create a table using ditroff and tbl.
    *  The last column has a block of text. I want the entries
    *  in the other columns, which each occupy one line only
    *  to be centered up and down relative to the block of text:
    * 	  ____________________________________________________
    * 	  |     |     |     |     | Lots of text here, which  |
    * 	  |  x  |  y  |  z  |  w  | happens to run on for     |
    * 	  |_____|_____|_____|_____|_three lines...____________|
    * 	  |     |     |     |     | Second entry in this field|
    * 	  |  a  |  b  |  c  |  d  | I couldn't draw both text |
    * 	  |_____|_____|_____|_____|_draw_both_text_and_dashes_|

    *  If for these line I have      :
	*  a a a a a.
	*   . . .  and so on  . . .
Vertical spanning of  a  type columns in ditroff is BROKEN beyond
all belief.  Try using  l  type columns instead and see what you get.

    	........  Henry