Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!drillsys!rice!phil From: phil@rice.EDU (William LeFebvre) Newsgroups: net.bugs Subject: Re: Pic advice (almost a bug) Message-ID: <162@dione.rice.EDU> Date: Sat, 29-Mar-86 20:59:33 EST Article-I.D.: dione.162 Posted: Sat Mar 29 20:59:33 1986 Date-Received: Wed, 2-Apr-86 08:26:35 EST References: <479@rna.UUCP> <364@hropus.UUCP> Organization: Rice University, Houston Lines: 27 Summary: just make it the default In article <364@hropus.UUCP>, jrw@hropus.UUCP (Jim Webb) writes: > > If you get boxes and lines that don't quite match up, > > look to the pltroff.c file for the answer. Tho this isn't a bug, > > these printer dependencies could be handled more gracefully. > > Or, you could use the -D option on pic, which says to use all \D requests > instead of multiple rules... > -- I just made it the default for everyone here. The hack method of using \l and \L was put in to make printing pic-ed things on the CAT/4 (or /8) phototypesetter faster. You see, they did graphics on the CAT by printing a WHOLE BUNCH of periods. You can imagine how slow that was. So, using \l and \L (the horizontal and vertical line drawing troff commands) was MUCH faster, although not as accurate. Such a trick isn't needed on today's laser printers, since there is (typically) so much graphics support built in. So, essentially, the "quick" method, as it was called, is obsolete and everyone should use -D, so why not make it the default? -- William LeFebvre Department of Computer Science Rice University