[Groff] tbl problem

[Werner LEMBERG]

Consider the following table (note the starting `.sp'):

  .sp
  .TS
  tab(@), center;
  c c c | c c c
  r rI lB | r rI lB.
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  _
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  address@hidden@address@hidden@address@hidden
  .TE

This produces:

                             |
        Bit   Code   Warning | Bit    Code      Warning
        ---------------------+----------------------------
          0      1   char    |  10     1024   reg
          1      2   number  |  11     2048   tab
          2      4   break   |  12     4096   right-brace
          3      8   delim   |  13     8192   missing
          4     16   el      |  14    16384   input
          5     32   scale   |  15    32768   escape
          6     64   range   |  16    65536   space
          7    128   syntax  |  17   131072   font
          8    256   di      |  18   262144   ig
          9    512   mac     |  19   524288   color

Two problems:

  . Note the ugly `|' in the first line.  Does UNIX tbl produce a
    similar result?  I would like to get rid of the superfluous `|'.

  . Without the leading `.sp', grotty produces a warning

      grotty:tbl:232: character above first line discarded

    and discards the first line.  I think this is not good behaviour.
    grotty is right, and tbl should be fixed.

Finally a question regarding a feature not documented in the original
tbl manual.  GNU troff strips leading and trailing spaces from data
fields -- this is very convenient since it makes table data much more
readable.  What about UNIX tbl?


  Werner