Re: [Groff] Re: begin page blues

[Miklos Somogyi]

On 23/02/2006, at 6:33 PM, Werner LEMBERG wrote:

> > Regarding the implementation of the \Y equivalent perhaps it is
> > useful to have a look at how SGI-troff-Adobe-ps handled the
> > situation.
>
> Well, the .devicem macro will be exactly the same as \Y.  To create
> similar code with grops you have to use the `ps: def ...' grops
> command to define a PS macro which is then executed with `ps: exec' --
> I'm sure you know that :-)

I wouldn't do that. I have thousands of lines of PS routines that I cat 
together with
the prologue. Troff works with the prologue, I work with my library.
Independence is as easy as apple pie.
I would not have any need for 'ps: defs ...'

What are really important:

a) The ability to mix groff and ps stuff in one macro.
     E.g. one needs to reserve space (via groff's .sp) and scale 
drawings
             (via PS's scale-translate-rotate).
     E.g. you need groff's .so in the middle of ps code, 'cause
             things need to be initialized before the external code and 
 things need to be performed after
             it finished executing.

b) The ability to pass parameters to both components (preferably via 
\\$1 ... directly, rather than
     putting things into number registers and strings).
     E.g. delta-y to to groff to reserve space, and to ps to scale, and 
many other things.
     Neither mechanism seem to work with groff, though it could be me 
who misunderstood
     a couple of things.

The SGI-troff-Adobe-prologue provided only one mechanism to include ps, 
but
this allowed one to do absolutely everything, and to do it with ease.

> BTW, does SGI troff directly emit PostScript?  Otherwise all lines
> with `\!' are put into the intermediate output file -- this also needs
> an extension to the PS output device, starting and ending rough PS
> data with `%' and `.', respectively.

Sorry, I can't check it, 'cause (foolishly) I de-commissioned my little 
O2 when I got the BigMac.
But I would not think that it did.