Re: [Groff] Vertical position not affected by .sp request

[Dave Kemper]

On Sat, Jul 16, 2011 at 12:39 AM, Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden> wrote:
>> meintro.me doesn't document .bl at all, talking only about .sp as a
>> way to leave vertical space (in section 2.4).  This would be a good
>> place to add text [...]
>
> I would be glad if you could provide patches for groff_me.man and
> meref.me, and, if necessary, for meintro.me also.

OK, five months later, I've finally worked up what I hope is a good patch
(it's been a while since I've generated one, so let me know if this is
broken somehow).  It's at the bottom of this message.

>>> The macro packages ...  might set the "no space" flag, to disable
>>> vertical space from being output at the top of the page
>>
>> Is this a groff flag?  Where is it documented?  I couldn't find it in
>> the info files.
>
> No-space mode is fully documented in the info pages of groff

Ah, that was the problem -- I was telling the info reader to search
for "no space", as the original poster wrote, rather than "no-space".
Info's search is rather literal.


--- doc/meintro.me.orig 2010-12-31 01:33:09.000000000 -0600
+++ doc/meintro.me      2011-11-04 07:10:12.000000000 -0500
@@ -456,6 +456,14 @@
 .q "My thoughts on the subject" ,
 followed by a single blank line.
 .pp
+This request will not leave space at the top of a page.
+If you need the requested space to appear regardless of page position,
+use the
+.b .bl
+macro, which has the same syntax as
+.b .sp
+but always leaves the requested space, even at the top of a page.
+.pp
 The
 .b .in \ \c
 .i +N
--- doc/meref.me.orig   2010-12-31 01:33:09.000000000 -0600
+++ doc/meref.me        2011-12-26 02:15:36.000000000 -0600
@@ -1298,7 +1298,7 @@
 contiguous white space,
 on the next page if not enough room
 on this page.
-Equivalent to a
+Equivalent to putting a
 .b .sp
 .i N
 inside a block.
@@ -2075,7 +2075,7 @@
 \&.bc  M       begin new column
 \&.bi  M       bold italic
 \en(bi R       display (block) indent
-\&.bl  M       blank lines (even at top of page)
+\&.bl  M       blank lines (even at top of page, in contrast to .sp)
 \en(bm R       bottom title margin
 \&.bp  M\(sc   begin page
 \&.br  M\(sc   break (start new line)
@@ -2185,7 +2185,7 @@
 \&.sm  M       set argument in a smaller pointsize
 \&.so  M\(sc   source input file
 \en(so R       additional section title offset
-\&.sp  M\(sc   vertical space
+\&.sp  M\(sc   vertical space (except at top of page, in contrast to .bl)
 \en(sp R       section title pointsize
 \en(ss R       section prespace
 \&.sx  M       change section depth
--- tmac/groff_me.man.orig      2010-12-31 01:33:09.000000000 -0600
+++ tmac/groff_me.man   2011-11-04 06:36:05.000000000 -0500
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
 Many
 .I troff
 requests are unsafe in conjunction with
-this package, however, these requests may be used with
+this package; however, these requests may be used with
 impunity after the first .pp:
 .nf
 .IP
@@ -56,6 +56,9 @@
 \&.ul n        underline next n lines
 .fi
 .PP
+Unlike its default behavior, under the -me macros
+the .sp request will not put space at the top of a page.
+.PP
 Output of the
 .I pic,
 .I eqn,