Re: .SPACE in mom

[Peter Schaffter]

Ulrich --

On Mon, Nov 08, 2021, Ulrich Lauther wrote:
> I know that .SPACE |<some distance> moves me to some distance from
> the top of the page, though I cannot find this knowledge in mom's
> documentation.

It's in the entry for 'sp' in the groff info manual.

> A naive person (like me) would hope, that a negative argument
> would bring me to some distance from the bottom of the page; that,
> of course, is not the case.
> 
> My solution looks like this:
> 
> .nr tmp \n[#PAGE_LENGTH]-\n[#B_MARGIN]-3c
> .SP |\n[tmp]u
> 
> Question:
> Is there a simpler or more elegant way?

No.  It's the tried and true method, clunky though it is.  The only
groff request that uses a negative argument to mean "from the bottom
of the page" is 'wh', which sets page traps.
 
> Suggestion: 
> Mention ".SPACE" also in "4.7 Vertical Movements" together with an
> explanation of "|" and maybe a hint, how to navigate to a place
> relative to the page bottom.

A "See also" in 4.7 with mention of | in the "Experts" note to
SPACE ought to do the trick.  I'll update the docs.

I don't think "how to navigate to a place relative to the page
bottom" belongs in the mom documentation.  It's covered in
the info 'sp' entry.

Cheers.

-- 
Peter Schaffter
https://www.schaffter.ca