[comp.text] strange troff -mm page number spacing

rlt@umb.umb.edu (Richard Tenney) (10/21/88)

    I should appreciate whatever help you may be able to offer with the
following strange troff problem.
    When I use the .TC macro to produce the table of contents with the
mm macros, it redefines the bottom-of-page string }b with the command
     .ds}b ''- \\\\n(;g -''
where the register ;g is used for the page number and is set to print in
lowercase Roman numerals.  The only unusual feature is that I have set
the environment (2) to print in bold; other than that, it is a normal
mm set up.  When the first two pages print, the page number in the
footer is spread far too wide, meaning that the page number looks like
"-     i     -" or like "-     i   i     -" centered in the middle of
the page.  For page three, the spacing looks normal (something like
"- iii -").  (I have only three pages of table of contents, so I don't
know what it would do on subsequent pages).
     Any ideas?
     Thanks - 
        Richard Tenney
        rlt@umb.edu
        (rlt%umb.edu@relay.cs.net)

jeff@ism780c.isc.com (Jeff Copeland) (10/22/88)

In article <703@umb.umb.edu> rlt@umb.umb.edu (Richard Tenney) writes:
[problems with table of contents in -mm]
>            When the first two pages print, the page number in the
>footer is spread far too wide, meaning that the page number looks like
>"-     i     -" or like "-     i   i     -" centered in the middle of
>the page.  For page three, the spacing looks normal (something like
>"- iii -").  

Has .cs mode gotten accidentally set?  Typically a constant spacing font
is mounted in position 3, same as bold.  Force a reset in the .TY macro,
which is the user exit for TC, and prints "CONTENTS" at the top of the ToC:
	.am TY
	.ev 2
	.cs 3
	.ev
	..

morrell@hpsal2.HP.COM (Michael Morrell) (10/22/88)

/ hpsal2:comp.text / rlt@umb.umb.edu (Richard Tenney) /  6:51 pm  Oct 20, 1988 /

lowercase Roman numerals.  The only unusual feature is that I have set
the environment (2) to print in bold; other than that, it is a normal
mm set up.  When the first two pages print, the page number in the
footer is spread far too wide, meaning that the page number looks like
"-     i     -" or like "-     i   i     -" centered in the middle of
the page.  For page three, the spacing looks normal (something like
"- iii -").  (I have only three pages of table of contents, so I don't
know what it would do on subsequent pages).
----------

To produce the equally spaced dots for the table of contents, the MM package
uses the bold font (actually font 3) and uses the .cs request to put it
in a constant-spacing.  This is turned off at the end of the processing so
that explains why your page three looked OK.  The "cs" mode is not a function
of the environment, so it affected you page footers as well.  If you need
bold page footers, try using the ".fp" request to put bold on another position
(I'm not sure this will work).  You can also turn off bold for the table of
contents in the ".TX" or ".TY" macro.