Re: [Groff] groff ms: Is there an order to setting PS and VS versus PO and LL

[Ted Harding]

On 17-Mar-2015 18:00:47 Heinz-Jürgen Oertel wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 17. März 2015, 15:34:59 schrieb Dorai Sitaram:
>> If I set  registers PO and LL and also set PS and VS, the values of PO and
>> LL seem to revert to the default values. It doesn't seem to matter which
>> order I set these registers in (all done in the preamble of the document of
>> course).  What is a way to make all settings of these four registers stick?
>> thanks,--d
> 
> 
> For me it works as expected. Suppose this input
> -----------------------------------------------
> .nr PO 4c
> .nr LL 10c
> .nr PS 20
> .nr VS 22
> .LP
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> This is a line following the settings above. 
> -----------------------------------------------
> The result is attached as PDF.
> 
>  Heinz

The ms macros have a somewhat deeply hidden mechanism of
storing the existing values of page-offset, line-length
and the like which can cause the kind of effect that Dorai
observes.

If I intend a non-default page offset (e.g. 0.75i) to be in
force from the very start of the document, then I would use
the two requests (in the order shown):

.po 0.75i
.nr PO 0.75i

and make sure that they were placed before anything else
which could trigger a "new page" set-up. Similarly:

.ll 6.75i \"standard LL + 6/8"
.nr LL 6.75i

Likewise, if I want to change these in the course of a
document, I would again use such pairs of requests.

This does not, of course, impede changing line length
in the middle of a paragraph:

.LP
These lines are printed using the standard line-length.
These lines are printed using the standard line-length.
These lines are printed using the standard line-length.
.ll -1i
But these lines will be printed 1 inch shorter.
But these lines will be printed 1 inch shorter.
But these lines will be printed 1 inch shorter.
But these lines will be printed 1 inch shorter.
.ll
And now these lines are again printed using the standard line-length.
And now these lines are afain printed using the standard line-length.

Or, if you don't need the final lines (with standard length),
then the next new-paragraph macro (.LP, .PP, .IP, .XP) will
look up the values of .ll etc. which were in force before
the in-paragraph ".ll" (unless also change in ".nr LL").

Hoping this helps,
Ted.

PS: Dorai, it could help to clarify the issue is you would
give an example of input where the effect you observed occurs.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
Date: 17-Mar-2015  Time: 18:30:03
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