Article View: comp.text
Article #2235Re: What exactly do the troff escape sequences \N and \X do?
From: nils-peter.nelson
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 1990 18:50
Date: Wed, 19 Dec 1990 18:50
25 lines
1622 bytes
1622 bytes
And the question is from Bell Labs, no less! For every troff font there is a font description file (readable ascii in DWB 3.1, binary in older troffs). It contains the character name, width, descender/ascender flag and numeric code. Because many fonts have more than 96 characters, you run out of printable ascii names for the characters. For example, the English cuurency symbol does not have an ascii representation, but is code number 220 in the PostScript font file. \N'220' will thus print this symbol. (actually, \(ps does this as well in 3.1) \X'string' merely copies string to the ditroff output stream. It's up to the postprocessor to do something reasonable. The SetColor example would only make sense if the PostScript postprocessor (dpost) followed in the pipeline. The visual representation and numeric code for all printable PostScript characters is in the PostScript section of the DWB 3.1 documentation. \X is in section 10.7 of the DWB 3.1 Troff User's Manual. For possible values of 'string' you would have to read the entire Adobe PostScript Language Reference Manual.
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<1990Dec19.185041.489@cbnewsl.att.com>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bellcore!att!cbnewsl!npnReferences:
<1990Dec18.160328.27395@cbnewsk.att.com>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!bellcore!att!cbnewsl!npn From: npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: What exactly do the troff escape sequences \N and \X do? Summary: what troff \N and \X do Keywords: troff, escape sequences Message-ID: <1990Dec19.185041.489@cbnewsl.att.com> Date: 19 Dec 90 18:50:41 GMT References: <1990Dec18.160328.27395@cbnewsk.att.com> Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 25