How does (di)troff print specials?

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#5958

From: josef
Date: Fri, 10 Mar 1989 08:22

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I am currently trying to find my way through ditroff's database but am
hopelessly stuck!

Can somebody tell me the exact structure of the DESC.out and XX.out
files (XX=R,I,B,H,S,...)?
What I am most interested in is the question:

  Given a troff special character like \(dg, how does ditroff
  figure out where to find the information on how to print the dagger?
  I.e. what is the path ditroff (and it's post-processors dxxxx) follows
  from \(dg to e.g. the bitmap for a dagger in file S.out.

		Josef Moellers

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Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!unido!nixpbe!ugun21!josef
From: josef@ugun21.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: How does (di)troff print specials?
Message-ID: <5800007@ugun21>
Date: 10 Mar 89 08:22:00 GMT
Lines: 24
Nf-ID: #N:ugun21:5800007:000:785
Nf-From: ugun21.UUCP!josef    Mar 10 09:22:00 1989