[comp.text] me footnotes - a "drifting problem"

steve@carr.UUCP (Steve Azmier) (04/13/88)

Hi:

We've been tearing our hair out trying to find a way to keep pages
from "drifting" across the bursts of paper.  That is, the problem
occurs when we try to use -me footnotes [read: .(f \** .)f].  The
first page comes out fine but after that a slow "drifting effect"
takes place so that by the 12th page the page number 12 begins at the
bottom of the 11th page :-( .

Has anyone experienced this before and if so is there "a fix" for this
problem? 

We are using the following nroff macro files:

    @(#)tmac.e  	1.1	86/07/08
    @(#)footnote.me	1.1	86/07/08
    @(#)thesis.me	1.1	86/07/08

Thanks in advance,

Steve Azmier,

USENET: {mnetor,utzoo}!yunexus!writer!steve
NETNORTH/BITNET: steve@yulibra

hapke@urbsdc.Urbana.Gould.COM (04/16/88)

Footnotes will "drift" in -me when you use nroff because of the way the $s
macro is coded.  Here it is:

	.de $s			\" $$$ footnote separator
	\l'2i'
	.if n \
	.	sp 0.3
	..

The .sp 0.3 command produces half-line motions in the nroff output.  Unless
your printer can handle these, the pagination is thrown off eventually.

You can recode $s to use .br instead of .sp 0.3, or you can try piping the
nroff output through 'col' before you print it.

Warren Hapke, Gould CSD-Urbana
  ihpn4!uiucuxc!urbsdc!hapke