Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!husc6!wjh12!bb From: bb@wjh12.harvard.edu (Brent Byer) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: What features would you like in GNU troff? Message-ID: <355@wjh12.harvard.edu> Date: 13 Jun 89 19:38:42 GMT References: <742@dtscp1.UUCP> <10959@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <21@nx32s.anduk.co.uk> <779@pcrat.UUCP> Reply-To: bb@wjh12.UUCP (Brent Byer) Distribution: comp Organization: Textware, Cambridge MA Lines: 48 In article <779@pcrat.UUCP> rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) writes: ... >>> From: rick@pcrat.UUCP (Rick Richardson) >>> Using macros can get text to swim around bitmaps to the >>> left or right. But I haven't figured out a way to make text swim >>> between arbitrary bitmaps placed anywhere in the output using just >>> macros. Keep working at it. It isn't too hard, but it isn't for novices. >>> Troff has to be taught this. No, AT&T troff is perfectly capable of this, *as is*. Maybe, you have to be taught troff. :-) >I want to be able to tell troff that there >are "holes" in the paper, and to skip the "holes" when justifying >text: > This is a test of a > hole ******** in the > page ******** being > skipped magically. > >I don't think you can do this with just macros. You'd need a horizontal >trap. Not true. This can be implemented in less than 40 lines of troff. >Also, it isn't any great trick to do the actual include of bitmaps. > > .BM bitmap_file_name file_type placement > >The macro takes care of determining the size of the bitmap and arranging >for troff skip ... Yes, this is exactly how Textware's Tplus has done it since late 1986. And, given that this is on several of the machines at your work (AT&T HO) location, Rick, I'm pleased that you found the technique enlightening. ( Wouldn't it have been appropriate to give proper credit? ) Brent Byer brent@textware.UUCP or bb@wjh12.harvard.edu Textware Intl. or att!ihesa!textware!brent 12-year old nephew: "Uncle Bill, that steamboat race was the biggest gamble in the world." W.C. Fields: "That was nothing, son. I remember when Lady Godiva put everything she had on a horse."