leff@.seas.smu.edu (leff) (06/02/90)
We are experiencing problems with a line that is supposed to present as solid, coming out in a dashed mode. It is about 90% solid. On our ditroff, the first three lines come out as solid lines, the way they should. However, the fourth line comes out in the dashed manner, described above. This is important as eqn generates lines using the \l mechanism illustrated by the fourth example. These appear in fractions. Additionally, large brackets produced by eqn are also coming out in this dotted fashion. Obviously, this dashed dottiness is a syndrome of sorts. Any suggestions as to how we can correct this? Thanks for any help you can provide; this snafu is interfering with the work of several people trying to get out their dissertations. \l'4i_' .br ____________________________________ .br \D'l 2000 0' .br \l'4i' Laurence Leff, Ph.D |Work is a monotonic function of d$/dWork CS,SMU, Dallas, Texas 75275-0122, | It is not a function of $ Phone: 817-565-4308 Moderator comp.doc.techreports/TRLIST, Symbolic Math List convex!smu!leff leff%smu.uucp@uunet E1AR0002 at SMUVM1 (BITNET)
jaap@mtxinu.COM (Jaap Akkerhuis) (06/09/90)
In article <16323@smunews.UUCP> leff@csvax.seas.smu.edu (leff) asks: > On our ditroff, the first three lines come out as solid lines, the way they > should. However, the fourth line comes out in a dashed manner. > > \l'4i_' (1) > .br > ____________________________________ (2) > .br > \D'l 2000 0' (3) > .br > \l'4i' (4) Note that at (1) and (2) troff will use the underline character. With (3) troff uses a default character, normally a string of dots, but dependent on the implementation of the back and, it could directly translate to a device dependent ``draw a line command''. At (4), troff uses yet another default chaarter, the baseline rule (\(ru). When drawing lines using \l'..' etc. troff builds actually a string of characters, so (1) translates more or less directly into (2). (1) has the advantage that you can specify the length in inches. So (4) translates to something like \(ru\(ru\(ru etc. My experience is that a lot of times the \(ru's have some white space around them (The \(_ or the \(ul normally don't). My guess is that that is your problem. How do we solve this. Well, complain to whowever sold you the troff & fonts. An \(ru for troff shouldn't have white space. That might not help if you do your own troff hacking. A quick hack is to do a .tr \(ru\(ul command. Basically it will translate the \(ru into a \(ul (or a _, these things mean the same characters a lot of times). Of course the problem with this is that the line will be drawn slightly off (vertically) from where you want it. jaap