Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jaap+ From: jaap+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jaap Akkerhuis) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: Ditroff question: what does \X do? Message-ID: Date: 20 Nov 89 22:09:47 GMT References: <5769@timbuk.cray.com> Organization: Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 23 In-Reply-To: <5769@timbuk.cray.com> Excerpts from netnews.comp.text: 16-Nov-89 Ditroff question: what does.. Anne Chenette@timbuk.cra (1924) > What did I do??? Is \X a ditroff escape sequence? Yes, it is an escape seuqence to push arbitrary stuff trough troff. To citate your messages, ``\X-MP\ EA\s+1, and \s-'' showed up as ``x X MP EA, and s1'' in troffs ouput. The ``-'' are interprated as the quotes just like in \h' ' constructs etc. > If so, how is it used? > I'd like to include PostScript figures in a ditroff document; can \X > (or anything else) be used to do it? How do I get back to ditroff once > I "escape" to PostScript? Is any of this documented anywhere? By the by, > I'm running SunOs 3.5 with DWB ditroff (version unknown). It is used to send arbitrary commands to the postprocessor of troff. And yes, since the commands are arbitrary, you can do nice PostScript tricks with it. As an example, see ``psfig'', the postscript preprocessor done by Trevor Darrell & Ned Batchelder. It is available by anonymous ftp from (I believe) upenn.edu or so. jaap