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Re: [Groff] read-only number register
From: |
Ingo Schwarze |
Subject: |
Re: [Groff] read-only number register |
Date: |
Tue, 3 Mar 2015 03:06:50 +0100 |
User-agent: |
Mutt/1.5.23 (2014-03-12) |
Hi,
SGT. Garcia wrote on Mon, Mar 02, 2015 at 07:32:18PM -0500:
> On Mar 03 00:40 +0100, Ingo Schwarze wrote:
>> A roff document can read from the number register (for example
>> using the \n espace sequence) but cannot change the value of
>> the register (for example, assigning to it with the .nr request
>> won't work).
> i guess i'm looking for a glossary.
http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/html_node/Concept-Index.html
is probably as close to a glossary as it gets.
The Heirloom roff manual
http://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools/troff.pdf
is slightly shorter than the groff manual and may consequently be
somewhat easier to skim through to get a first impression of the
most important terms, but it doesn't include a glossary either.
> for example, what's a request?
A request is a command that is built into the the roff language,
somewhat similar to a reserved word in a programming language,
except that it can only occur after a leading dot or apostrophe
at the beginning of an input line.
> how is it different from a macro?
A macro is a user-defined command, analoguous to a user-defined
function in a procedural programming language.
> and why would one want to read the number register.
That depends on which register; reading and manipulating registers
is most often useful when defining your own macros.
Yours,
Ingo