Re: [Groff] sqtroff / groff diffs - escape sequences

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > I presume I can get the current position from a register
> > and draw the box with explicit positions instead?
> 
> Not conveniently, and it's tricky. Nor is it clear why you
> need to. However, \n[.h] (as in Unix troff) is the "current
> text baseline high-water mark", i.e. essentially your vertical
> position from the top of the page. The escape sequence \kX
> marks the current horizontal _inout_ place in register X,
> and this may not be the same as the horizontal position
> in the output.

An the register \n[hp] gives you the horizontal position at the input
line -- this is a groff extension.

> Note, again, that the
> command \D'nnn' has a side-effect that the current point moves
> right by nnn machine units, so usually you will want to undo that.
> Either use \Z'\D'f nnn'', which ensures no motion regardless
> of nnn, or use \D'f nnn'\h'-nnnu'.

With groff 1.18, \D'f ...' no longer causes motion.

> To change the colour of text requires a different approach.  It's
> straightforward with PostScript, since you can plant the PostScript
> setgray and setrgbcolor commands using the \X'ps: 0.xyz setgray'
> (0<= 0.xyz <= 1, where 0 = black and 1 = white); and \X'ps: r g b
> setgrbcolor' where r, g, b are also between 0 and 1. "setgray" and
> "setrgbcolor" will change the gray-level or colour of everything..

Ted, the new colour support in groff is really a reason to upgrade :-)

Colour changing should be done with \m and \M for foreground and
background colours, respectively.  Again, this is new in version 1.18
which hasn't been released yet.


   Werner