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2 total messages Started by George Sicherman Mon, 02 Jan 1984 22:20
output from tbl
#162
Author: George Sicherman
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 1984 22:20
23 lines
1194 bytes
For some reason, when tbl writes the actual table entries, it surrounds
them with delimiters.  Example:

input:	.TS
	l l.
	alpha (T) beta
	.TE

output:	...
	\&\h'...'^B^Calpha^B\h'...'^Bbeta^C^B
	...

Does anybody know why?  Obviously the delimiters should not be there.

Troff badly misplaces the -me special characters
because of these spurious delimiters.
And of course, if your entries contain all the troff-acceptable
control characters, tbl will choose graphics for delimiters.  Try it!

The fix ought to be to change t8.c to just not print the delimiters.
But will that kill something?
			G. L. Sicherman
			...seismo!rochester!rocksvax!sunybcs!colonel
Re: output from tbl
#163
Author: Jaap Akkerhuis
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 1984 14:15
22 lines
1293 bytes
<Well known line>

		\&\h'...'^B^Calpha^B\h'...'^Bbeta^C^B
		...
	
	... Obviously the delimiters should not be there.
	The fix ought to be to change t8.c to just not print the delimiters.
	But will that kill something?

Well, that will kill tbl completely...
Tbl uses the field capabilities of troff. The ^B and the ^C are just the
padding indicators and field delimiters, so they have to be there.
(See chapter 9 of N/Troff User's Manual, for an explanation of the
field mechanism).

	Troff badly misplaces the -me special characters

Do you mean the characters like u\*: (chapter 13 -me reference manual)?
Well they work only properly if:
	1) You have the Berkeley version of n/troff
	2) The definitions of string  like \*: is matched to your
	   output device.
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