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From: mao@blipyramid.BLI.COM (Mike Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Inserting text directly in ditroff output
Message-ID: <52@blipyramid.BLI.COM>
Date: Sat, 31-Oct-87 12:37:18 EST
Article-I.D.: blipyram.52
Posted: Sat Oct 31 12:37:18 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 5-Nov-87 03:57:57 EST
References: <3457@trwrb.UUCP> <3696@ptsfa.UUCP>
Organization: Britton Lee, Inc.
Lines: 20
Keywords: ditroff, postprocessor
Summary: be careful of \!...

In article <3696@ptsfa.UUCP>, Ken Keirnan writes:
> 	Ditroff (all versions that I know of) does not have any special
> output command for transparent data, but it does have an escape sequence
> that allows passing source lines transparently to ditroff's output.  This
> is the transparent line escape "\!".

this works very well, so long as you don't try to use it in a diversion.
for example, using the -me macros:

	.(b
	some text...
	\!PASS THIS THROUGH
	some more text
	.)b

will *not* do what you expect.  in cases like this, escape the backslash
(\\!).
					mike olson
					britton lee, inc.
					...!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!blia!mao