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From: cosell@BBN-PROPHET.ARPA (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: net.text
Subject: Re:  (ti)troff question - horizontal motion and drawing arguments
Message-ID: <8606042327.AA17661@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Wed, 4-Jun-86 16:45:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8606042327.AA17661
Posted: Wed Jun  4 16:45:37 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Jun-86 20:33:41 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 16

> The troff manual I have gives \h'N' as the sequence to use for horizontal
> motion.  Fine.  my question is: What kind of interpretation is done on
> the string inside the single quotes?

Troff does its normal '\' evaluation, as it does for all commands, and
that's all.  Your problem is that you didn't fully appreciate what 'N'
means.  It means a *NUMBER*.  '.nr' is the only convenient command
that takes an *EXPRESSION*.  So what you have to do is
   .nr xx 8*.... "\whatever
   \h'\n(xxu'\"Don't forget the 'u' here

   /Bernie

Bernie Cosell                       Internet:  cosell@prophet.bbn.com
Bolt, Beranek & Newman, Inc         USENET:    bbncc5!bpc
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