Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!gatech!emory!dtscp1!scott
From: scott@dtscp1.UUCP (Scott Barman)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: tbl error message:line 202: Too many text block diversions
Keywords: tbl, troff
Message-ID: <809@dtscp1.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 89 04:52:17 GMT
References: <19811@cos.com>
Reply-To: scott@dtscp1.UUCP (Scott Barman)
Organization: Digital Transmission Systems (a subsidiary of DCA), Duluth, GA
Lines: 30

In article <19811@cos.com> duc@cos.com (Duc Kim Nguyen) writes:
>Netlanders:
>	I have a simple (and long) tbl file, and could not get it
>to print because of:
>file.tbl: line 202: Too many text block diversions
>tbl quits
>
>Can anyone shed some light ?  Each T{ T} pair becomes a diversion ?

Oh yes!  It sure does.  Using troff it is the only way to format the text
block and find its depth and other parameters to print it.  It also allows
tbl to separate the block and position it.  If you look at the way tbl works,
it will use string variables to save data, number registers to save widths,
and diversions for text blocks.  It will not put it all together until it
sees the .TE at the end.

One of the problems is they all share the same namespace.  Therefore if you
have a diversion named ZZ you cannot have a macro named ZZ as well.  This
makes sense considering how diversions are used, but you cannot define a
string as ZZ without doing strange things to troff!

NOTE: Yes, I realize this is an argument for long names, but it is also one
for a separate namespaces.  HOWEVER, I have a version of tbl that uses
the \D draw functions to draw lines (highly more efficient) and I do not
want to make those hacks again! :-)  Now, if I can handle drawing lines
with tables breaking pages, I would be all set. :-)

-- 
scott barman
{gatech, emory}!dtscp1!scott