[Groff] mm macros (original!) and problems with recent groff

[Pete Phillips]

Hi all.

We have been using various flavours of troff (from UNIX 5.1, then
SQtroff, through SunOS, and then with gtroff) to produce all of our lab
test reports since about 1985. We use the mm macros as they produce a
nice looking cover sheet.

Up until recently we have been using groff 1.11.1. Although we have the
gm macros installed we mainly use the original mm macros (this is the
copyright at the top of the file:

''' \"  UNIX Memorandum Macros - 15.130 of 10/7/82
''' \"  TROFF Version   @(#) mmt.src 15.130@(#)

) which we have hacked over the years to give us the report style that
we need. 

The Problem
============
For various reasons involving distribution updates, we are moving over
to the latest groff, but when using the original mm macros, it puts the
report number just underneath "Test Report" on page 1, and also displays
it on the cover sheet by "Charging Case".

I have put the source of one of our reports up on my web page:
  
    http://www.smtl.co.uk/~pete/troff/report.mm

report.mm is the source file, and the two postscript files (also
available as pdf) are the same file processed with groff 1.11.1 and
1.17.2

http://www.smtl.co.uk/~pete/troff/report.mm-groff1.11.1.ps
http://www.smtl.co.uk/~pete/troff/report.mm-groff1.17.2.ps

If you compare page 1 on each report, you wiull see that the latest
groff adds the report number just above the 1st section "Name &
Address..."

I'm not sure about putting the macro file itself on the site due to
copyright issues.

So, two questions:

1 - why might this change occur going from one version of groff to
another (but using the same macro file), and is there a solution ? 

2 - if no solution, has anyone produced any good looking cover sheets
with the mgm macros which we could get to produce our lab style as in
the postscript output ?

(As you can imagine, there is quite a bit of command line jiggery-pokery
required to get the UKAS logo on the page, but we do that with
postscript, so no need for the macro package to deal with that.)

Thanks in advance,
Pete

PS: Hi Ted - long time no speak - Dr Steve Thomas sends his regards.