fiasco@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Richard Gircy) (12/14/88)
A couple of troff questions. 1) the mm macro code request many diversions with the ' instead of the . . I know the basic diff, however is there some secret action that a 'di does? (e.g. something with breaks when the macro is read?) 2) the mm code has many escapes with multiple backslashes, and I know why, but in some case (like in one place threre are 8 \'s), so the question is, is there some reasonable way to figure out how many backslashes are needed? Is a basic rule of one pair per prevented interpretation valid? 3) any reasons for nested diversions in the mm code? This is not a quiz -- answers to these questions make you feel better about mucking with mm source. thanks in advance, rich
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (12/16/88)
In article <dfW1389Mru1010J0gfc@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com> fiasco@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Richard Gircy) writes: >2) the mm code has many escapes with multiple backslashes, and > I know why, but in some case (like in one place threre are 8 > \'s), so the question is, is there some reasonable way to > figure out how many backslashes are needed? Is a basic > rule of one pair per prevented interpretation valid? No, the rule is that you double the number of backslashes per prevented interpretation. Isn't troff fun? -- "God willing, we will return." | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology -Eugene Cernan, the Moon, 1972 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu