[comp.unix] A hard to find problem with tbl

davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (07/14/90)

  I was bitten by this error once before and it took several days to
find it. This time it took about a half hour, so I'll remind you that it
exists.

  When using tbl, if a field is on several lines bracketed by T{, as:
        fld 1@T{
        fld 2 line 1
        fld 2 line 2
        T}@fld 3

  If there is a blank following the "T{" for any field tbl will do many
strange things, none of which help to identify the problem. This
includes setting the field widths wrong, blowing up with "line too long"
errors, etc.

  Hope this saves someone some time!


-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
            "Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me

lee@sq.com (10/10/90)

describes a tbl problem involving "T{ ".

I suggest looking at Henry McGilton & Mary McNabb's book,
`Typesetting Tables', even if you have used tbl before.
Many problems with tbl are mentioned, as well as some good examples.

Also, note that lex has similar problems with "%{ " -- maybe Mike Lesk
used some common code?

Lee
-- 
Liam R. E. Quin,  lee@sq.com, {utai,utzoo}!sq!lee,  SoftQuad Inc., Toronto
``Mathematicians spent hundreds of years developing good ways to write
  formulas; then computer scientists came along and upset all the time-
  honoured traditions.''  [Donald Knuth, The METAFONTbook, p.59]