Re: [Groff] \o and \z do not work for -Tutf8

[Dale Snell]

On Mon, 4 Aug 2014 18:06:03 +0200
"Bernd Warken" <address@hidden> wrote:


> The overstrike with `\o' and `\z' preduce on `-Tpdf', etc., a plus
> sign within the digit 0 for both escapes.  But both escapes do not
> work on `-Tutf8' or `nroff': 
> 
> $ echo "A\o'0+'\z0+Z" | nroff
> A++Z
> 
> which is wrong.

Bernd,

If you redirect nroff's output to a file, I think you'll find that
it's doing what it's supposed to be doing.  I tried your example in a
terminal and got the same results you did.  Redirecting the output to
a file and looking at it with Emacs gave me the following string:
"A0^H+0^H+Z".  So nroff is overstriking, using backspaces to do so.
Unfortunately, the terminal only displays the most recent characters
in any one position.  If I'm not mistaken (and I may well be), it's
the man program that tells the terminal to overstrike.  I think.

(I have a decades-old memory of looking at formatted man pages with an
editor, and seeing runs of "x^Hx" for bolded, and "y^H_" for
underlined characters.)

--Dale

--
"Text processing has made it possible to right-justify any idea,
even one which cannot be justified on any other grounds."
                -- J. Finnegan, USC.

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