Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!oliveb!amdahl!fiasco
From: fiasco@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Richard Gircy)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: troff request trivia questions?
Message-ID: <dfW1389Mru1010J0gfc@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 14 Dec 88 00:38:26 GMT
Reply-To: fiasco@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com (Richard Gircy)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 18

A couple of troff questions.

1) the mm macro code request many diversions with the ' instead of
   the .  .  I know the basic diff, however is there some secret
   action that a 'di does? (e.g. something with breaks when the
   macro is read?)

2) the mm code has many escapes with multiple backslashes, and
   I know why, but in some case (like in one place threre are 8
   \'s), so the question is, is there some reasonable way to
   figure out how many backslashes are needed? Is a basic
   rule of one pair per prevented interpretation valid?

3) any reasons for nested diversions in the mm code?

This is not a quiz -- answers to these questions make you feel
better about mucking with mm source.

thanks in advance, rich