Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!apple!mauxci!eci386!ecicrl!clewis
From: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: NROFF output mysteries -- HELP WANTED
Message-ID: <2177@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca>
Date: 16 Jun 91 00:01:17 GMT
References: <17025@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Distribution: na
Organization: Elegant Communications Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 25

In article <17025@darkstar.ucsc.edu> de@helios.ucsc.edu (De Clarke) writes:
|Periodically we will snarf some nifty PD software off
|an anon ftp host somewhere.  Most recently we got MH.
|I notice with the documentatin for MH, and I have
|noticed in the past for some docs from CERT, that it
|is nearly impossible to print them readably.

|These docs are formatted with nroff (ugh) and lots of
|clever macros.  The mystery is that they contain many
|instances of ESC 9 -- a control sequence which doesn't
|ring any bells for me!  This sequence is invisible on
|normal terminals, but all my printers print it in one
|form or another.  Ugly.

The ESC 9's etc. are reverse line feeds on TTY37's or some
such.  Pipe the output of nroff thru col before printing
it.

eg:
	nroff <arguments> | col | lpr
-- 
Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541, Domain: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca
UUCP: ...!cunews!latour!ecicrl!clewis; Ferret Mailing List:
ferret-request@eci386; Psroff (not Adobe Transcript) enquiries:
psroff-request@eci386 or Canada 416-832-0541.  Psroff 3.0 in c.s.u soon!