RE: [Groff] Hanging paragraphs in MM

[Ted Harding]

On 01-Jun-10 10:19:17, Anton Shepelev wrote:
> Hello, all
> 
> I  often need to typeset single hanging paragraphs like:
> 
> PS: Example of a post-scriptum, it has  a  hanging
>     indent.
> 
> I have created a macro for this, which
> 
>   1.  Calculates  the  length  of  the  label  and
>       increments it by one,
> 
>   2.  Begins a variable-item list (MM's .VL)  with
>       the calculated indent,
> 
>   3.  Typesets  the  desired paragraph as one list
>       item (MM'c .LI),
> 
>   4.  Ends the list (MM's .LE).
> 
> But to use it, I have to pass both label and  text
> as  macro  parameters, while I'd like to pass only
> the label and have the text on the next input line
> (like it is done in MAN's .TP macro, for example).
> 
> Could  you please suggest a way of doing it? Maybe
> I better emulate it using  groff's  requests  (and
> take care not to meddle with MM's inner logic)?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Anton

This is handles nicely in MS macros (see below). Unfortunately,
it would seem that the MM macros only allow for two types of
paragraph:
Type 0: first line left-justified
Type 1: first line indented (indentation set in a register)
(Also Type 2 but this is basically the same as Type 1).

In MS macros, you would use ".IP" for an indented paragraph,
with 1 or 2 arguments. The first is the "tag". The second,
if present, is the amount of indenting (in n's) to use. So you
could do the following:

.IP "PS: " (n; \w'PS: ')
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.

That would produce a result like:

PS: This is a hanging paragraph. This is a hanging
    paragraph.  This is a hanging paragraph. This is
    a hanging paragraph. This is a hanging paragraph.
    This is a hanging paragraph.

The indentation has been calculated to allow room for "PS: ",
since otherwise (if the default indentation were smaller) the
tag "PS: " would be on a line by itself, with everything that
follows being on indented lines using the default indentation.
If you want to write your own macro to produce a similar effect,
you could maybe base it on the code which follows "@IP" in the
file .../tmac/s.tmac

One "hack" which might lead to what you want is to calculate an
indent based on the width of the tag "PS: ", and then increment
the line-indentation once the paragraph has been started (but
you would need to reset it at the end of the paragraph):
(Note the use of the unstretchable space "\ "). With Type 0 para:

.nr indnt \w'PS:\ '
.P
PS:\ This is a hanging paragraph.
.in +\n[indnt]u
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
This is a hanging paragraph.
.br
.in -\n[indnt]u


Hoping this helps!
Ted.

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Date: 01-Jun-10                                       Time: 12:14:22
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