Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!bhaskar
From: bhaskar@tc.fluke.COM (K.S. Bhaskar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Bugs in (3B1) 3.51 tbl|nroff|col, ksh
Message-ID: <2556@fluke.COM>
Date: 24 Dec 87 17:11:15 GMT
Sender: news@tc.fluke.COM
Lines: 47
Keywords: Unix 3B1 7300 PC nroff tbl col ksh bug

I ran into a couple of bugs (described below) in 3.51 software for my 3B1
recently.  Calling the hotline was a waste of time -- the person did not
understand the problem, kept trying to tell me that I was doing something
wrong, refused to accept that I might know what I was doing, and declined to
file a bug report.  He did finally agree to looking at a floppy disk if I
mailed it to him with a written description of the problem.  I suppose a
warranty is worth only as much as the commitment to stand behind it...

The following tbl source is botched, both when processed for the screen (tbl |
nroff | col -b) and for a printer (in my case, for an epson, by tbl | nroff
-Tfx-12 | col -xfp | fx).  In the first case, the box is drawn through the text
in the second row, second column.  On the printer, there are multiple bugs:
-   if the first row, second column extends over more than one line, the second
    line is indented and bolded
-   the second row second column is indented and bolded
-   the box is still drawn round the second row, second column
-   if there is additional text following the table, it too is bolded
The bug is probably in col, but that is irrelevant, since it is the interaction
of all 3 programs that produce the output.  There appears to be no work-around.
When I called the hotline, the person answering the phone tried to tell me that
tbl had no .T& construct!  (Btw, you can write the example without the .T&; it
doesn't make any difference to the result.)

.TS
box;
l | l.
T{
First row, first column; no bolding
T}	T{
\fBFirst row, second column; bolded\fR
T}
.T&
^t | l.
	T{
Second row, second column; second row, first column is formatted ^t
T}
.TE

The following causes ksh to die and leave a core dump.  Create a directory with
the files: sof.optics.1.n, sof.optics.n, sof.optics.t, sof.optics.v1,
sof.optics.v2, sof.optics.v3, sof.optics.v4, sof.optics.v5, sof.optics.v6,
sof.optics.v7, and sof.optics.v8 (empty files will do).  "cd" to it and type
"ls s<ESC>*" to expand the filenames in-line.  Your shell will disappear and
leave a core file in your directory.  When I called the hotline, the person
did not understand ksh's immediate filename expansion, and kept insisting that
I should say "ls s*<RETURN>".  He was also hung up on exactly what program was
I trying to invoke with what flags.