Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!uwvax!astroatc!vidiot!brown
From: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: tbl/ptroff/ms
Message-ID: <571@vidiot.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 90 03:24:54 GMT
References: <1990Jun27.215354.26439@shearson.com>
Reply-To: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Distribution: usa
Organization: Vidiot's Hangout
Lines: 30

In article <1990Jun27.215354.26439@shearson.com> fgreco@shearson.com (Frank Greco) writes:
<Troff-ers,
<
<I'm having a bit of a problem in creating multi-page reports in (p)troff/ms/tbl
<in landscape mode.
<
<I have a program that creates a tbl/troff file.  The size of the table
<is unknown ahead of time (we're extracting stuff out of a database).
<
<1.  The Sun docs are rather obtuse in the troff area.  I've found the
<.TS H and .TH/.TE macro(s) in the manuals.  Could someone please explain the
<use of these macros a *little* better than the Sun docs?  I've tried
<several combinations and I'm not having any luck.

Your local computer bookstore should have UNIX System V Documentor's Workbench
manuals that explain tbl.

<2.  How does one landscape-ize (11 X 8.5) a troff document?  When I
<attempt to change .pl, troff does not know how to correctly pagebreak.
<It attempts to print two separate pages on one sheet of paper.
<When I attempt to change .LL (via .nr LL <something>), troff complains
<that "PO + LL exceeds 7.54 inches".  Gees, I want it to exceed 7.54 inches!
<I want it landscape!

Troff was designed for portrait mode only, since it was made for the C/A/T
phototypesetter, which used photographic paper on a roll, 8.5" wide.
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