Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!phil@rice From: phil%rice@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: ^B and ^C in tbl output Message-ID: <15810@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Sat, 21-Jan-84 17:04:25 EST Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.15810 Posted: Sat Jan 21 17:04:25 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 23-Jan-84 02:41:28 EST Lines: 32 From: William LeFebvre Those control Bs and control Cs are NOT delimeter characters. But don't worry, that is what I thought they were, also. They are field and padding characters. After tbl sets up a ton of number registes that use those characters, it does a ".fc ^B ^C" which sets the field delimeter to ^B and the padding indicator to ^C. The "Nroff/Troff User's Manual" explains fields in section 9.2 (page 18). I am not exactly sure how they work, be cause I only discovered their existence a few days ago. Here is a section of the manual that describes their use: The field length is the distance on the input line from the position where the field begins to the next tab stop. The difference between the total length of all the sub-stings and the field length is incorporated as horizontal padding space that is divided among the indicated padding places. Those control characters are not "spurious". They are used to position strings inside the table segments. Take them out and your talbe won't look very pretty. As for the me special characters not working inside a table, I suspect that that is caused by "backslash confusion." Backslashes don't work the same inside a keep as they do in straight text. Try defining a string macro that overstrikes a slash and a backslash that can be used both inside and outside a keep! It can be done, but not obviously. The bottom line is that those control characters should not interfere with anything. I would like to see a case where they do! William LeFebvre ARPANet and CSNet: phil@rice USENet: ...!lbl-csam!rice!phil