[Groff] Suppress output (+ -me questions)

[Christian Jensen]

Hi,

As I wrote in an earlier mail I am writing a PhD thesis using groff (1.16)
and the me macro package. I often find my self trying to solve problems
that do not seem to have a standard solution, and as I am no expert (no
programming skills and still new to troff) I was hoping that maybe some of
you could help. Here are the first couple of questions:

1) Is it possible to turn on (and off) printing of output from within a
document? For example I would like to be able to print only an index
(table of contents) for later inclusion (automatically) into the main
document.

Alternatively, can a section of the document be redirected to a different
file?

2) In 'me' the floating keep - .(z - .)z - function has a behaviour which
I find very irritating: if the block will fit on the current page it is
printed at the bottom of the page. I would like it to print the block
immediately if it fits (and otherwise print it at the top of the next
page). This seems to be the behaviour in -ms, but is there a way to make
-me behave in the same way?

I have looked at the relevant macros in me and ms, but was unable to
figure out how they work.

Best,
Christian Jensen