🚀 go-pugleaf

Groff has a composite character feature which helps with using ISO
8859/1 with a device that doesn't have all the ISO 8859/1 characters.
For example, suppose you want to be able to input an `a' circumflex
using ISO 8859/1 (`a' circumflex has code 0342), and suppose you have
a device which has the letter `a' and has a circumflex accent, but
doesn't have an `a' circumflex as a single character.  Assuming `\*^'
has been defined appropriately, you just have to do:

.char \342 a\\*^

(by \342 I mean the character whose code is 0342.)  After this you can
use \342 exactly as if your output device provided an `a' with a
circumflex as a single character.

The `char' request is useful for other things too: for example,

.char \(ru \D'l .5m 0'

will get you a \(ru character if your output device happens not to
have one.

Characters defined with the `char' request can be used just like other
characters: for example, they will be hyphenated properly (after an
appropriate `hcode' request); they can also be used with the `lc'
request, with `tr' request and with the `\l' or `\L' escape sequences.

James Clark
jjc@jclark.uucp