[Groff] tbl X keyletter

[Steven Starr]

I have been using AT&T troff and the MM macro package since 1978 or so,
when I first joined Bell Labs (I'm still with Lucent). I've been using
the DWB 3.4 version since it was released, but I use groff on my home
Linux system. Since groff is also available at work, I can switch
between formatters; I wrote my own front end in the style of mom that
alters its behavior according to whether I want it to behave like 'fmt'
for email or to use troff or groff.

I have been eager to abandon DWB troff entirely for groff, but I have
been waiting for groff to catch up to troff in a few key areas, first.
Now that color is available for text and pic, the only missing feature
seems to be the X column keyword that is available in DWB tbl. This is
an incredibly useful.

>From the man page: It is used to "increase the normal width of this
column to use the remainder of the page width (between margins) after
the widths of the other columns have been subtracted. This modifier is
useful for a column containing text blocks, where it is desired to make
the column as wide as possible without exceeding the page width. At most
one column can have this modifier."

I can't seem to find this feature in groff tbl. Am I missing something?
If I'm not, this would be a great feature to add to groff tbl.

Steve



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 Steven Starr
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