[Groff] more on tbl problem

[Werner LEMBERG]

After some investigation I think that the problem is indeed with tbl
or troff and not with grotty.  Looking into the troff output, you can
find code like this for the ps device:

  V136500
  H291705
  Dl 0 -134000

So the vertical line doesn't reach the top of the current page.
Whereas with the ascii device:

  V480
  H672
  Dl 0 -480

The top of the page is reached; all values are multiples of the
resolution (which are 24 units horizontally and 40 units vertically),
so grotty doesn't do any rounding.

This problem can be solved only IMHO if another bug (or rather
misfeature) is fixed in tbl: It ignores the widths of lines.  Just add
`linesize(200)' to the global options of a table to see what I mean.
Unfortunately, this isn't a trivial fix. :-(


    Werner


PS: GNU tbl does *not* remove trailing and leading blanks in fields.
    This was my mistake, sorry.  Anyway, what do you think about a new
    option `ignoreblanks' to do that?