Re: [Groff] Coming back with my crazy macros !

[Thomas Baruchel]

On Tue, Jun 05, 2001 at 09:56:09AM +0200, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> >      You may think it isn't useful, since .unformat does the same
> >      thing, but it isn't true (I don't think that you can use the
> >      .it input trap between each word of a paragraph after
> >      .unformat).
> Correct.  BTW, have you tried the `.de xx yy' solution

Yes, this was in fact my first solution (several months ago), but I found
several things I didn't like. Here are my four 'compatible' solution with
what I didn't like in them (except the last one).

The purpose is to have a semi-formatted diversion, in order to study the lines
before formatting the paragraph.
  a) Defining a paragraph as a macro with .de
     --> nice and easy but:
           - not very nice if you have something like:
             .nr note 0
             .de x
             This is a nice paragraph
             .nr note +1
             (\n[note]).
             ..

             You see what I mean: the macro will contain everything, even
             some requests that shouldn't be executed several times...
           - You have your text in an unformatted way, but you don't
             know anything about it.
  b) Diverting the paragraph with a word on each line without using the
     .br request.
    b.1) Printing the text on very short lines (1u)
         --> very bad idea, no comment
    b.2) Using a very great value with .ss
         --> Better but not fully compatible
    b.3) Forcing each word to be printed on the next line by putting
         huge spaces before each one (without keeping the spaces in the
         diversion).

I will soon send more, but I want first to define a full set of macros
to handle with my semi-formatted paragraphs, in order to have good tools
before writing my new macros. I will begin to write:
  .( xx [indent]  Starting a semi-formatted diversion called xx with
                  a first-line indent of [indent]
  .^) [break]      Ending a semi-formatted diversion and putting or not a
                  break at the end.
  .^i xx [indent] Adding or removing the first line indent of a diversion.
  .^n xx NN       Count the number of blocks (words separated by stretchable
                  spaces) in the block and put this nulber in NN.
                  Detect if the diversion has a break at the and and tell it
                  in an readable internal register.
  .^p xx          Remove (pop) the last block (or the break) at the end of
                  a diversion.
  .^c xx yy zz    Concatenate xx and yy in order to have zz.
                  Example:  .^( xx
                            This is a
                            .^)
                            .^( yy
                            paragraph
                            .^)
                            .^c xx yy zz
                            .zz
                       will handle exactly has if you have typed:
                       This is a paragraph
                       (and the stretchable spaces will handle exactly as in
                       this case).
  .^r xx yy       Revert xx in order to create yy with the blocks in reverse
                  order (not very useful except for my purpose of formatting
                  backward the paragraph).
Do I need to tell that everything (including the backward formatting)
should work in compatible mode and should work with ascii output as well
as postscript ?
                  
> I'm very interested to see your results!

wait and see...

-- 
        ,--._
      .'o    `-.__
      |     (~'   ~~--.__
      ),-.'  `. '' ,,    ~`-.
     //   \    ( ,,  ,, ''   `)    Thomas Baruchel
    //     `.   `. ,,  ,,'' .'
   //        ~.   `._,,   ,'  <address@hidden>
   '   _tb_    `-.___.,-~'
                   \  \                 Brest
                  _/ _/