Re: [Groff] revisited: vertical text turned by 90 degree

[Ralph Graulich]

Hi again,

> IIRC ms centres horizontally a .PS's contents, mm doesn't.  It assumes
> you'll put it in a display, e.g. .DS, if that's what you want.  How well
> a display will work in a tbl cell I don't know.

It seems like it doesn't obey the given column width and expands them,
even if there would be enough horizontal space to have the whole thing fit
in. For example considering the following:

-----
.nr LL 17.0c
.nr HM 2c
.nr FM 2c
.nr PO 1.5c
.po 1.5c
.nr PS 9
.nr VS 10
.nr PI 0
.TS
expand box tab (:) ;
| lw(3c) | cw(14c) |
| ^ | c | .
T{
.PS
.ft H
.ps 15
line from 2, 0.7 to 2.0, 3.8 "tables" above aligned
.PE
T}:T{
.ft H
.ps 9
data1
T}
:T{
.ft H
.ps 9
data2
T}
.TE
-----

groff -ms -tp table.troff > table.ps

Whenever you change the length of the string "tables", the width of the
first column changes. The lomger the string is, the wider the first column
gets. For example, change tthe string to "tables for each user" and
compare it.

What causes the width change and how can I circumvent it?

Kind regards
... Ralph ...