Re: [Groff] The Nature of .ev

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Yves,

Ingo wrote:
> > I am trying to get to grips with how environments work.  For example
> > what I'm trying to do is start a new environment, apply some
> > formatting, then return to the previous environment:
> 
> As far as i understand, environments are not the intended tool for
> temporary formatting changes: They deal only half-way with partially
> filled lines, saving and discarding them, but providing no support for
> printing them.

Ingo's right.  They're not a way of having font settings to hand so you
can switch to a group of attributes in one go, as if putting an HTML
<span> in a particular CSS class.  They're intended more for printing a
page's footer when the trap is triggered at the bottom of the page's
text without having to save and restore the text's styling at that
point, whatever it may be.  Ditto the next page's header.

The Troff User's Manual, CSTR 54, uses them in its tutorial for the
footer macro.  http://troff.org/54.pdf

Cheers, Ralph.