Re: [Groff] Odd ms Macro Page Offset Register Behavior

[Heinz-Jürgen Oertel]

Am Sonntag, 11. Januar 2004 20:01 schrieb Andrew J. Piziali:
>    This morning I spent a few hours trying to figure out why the page
> offset of the second and subsequent pages of an ms document was
> different than the first.  Rereading the ms documentation (Kollar's and
> Lesk's), I discovered that the PO register is not intended to take
> effect until the next page.
>
>    However, the odd behavior I uncovered in the process is that the page
> offset only appears to apply to subsequent pages if a preceding .if
> directive succeeds.  Invoking groff as:
>
>         groff -ms -Tps MyDocument.ms >MyDocument.ps
>
> and using the following text as an example:
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
> .if 1 \{
> .  nr xy 12
> .\}
> .nr PO 1.875i
> .NH 1
> Xxxx Xxxxxxxx
> .PP
> Xx xxxx xxxxxxx X xxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxx xx xxxx xxxxxxxx \- xxxxxxxxx
> xxxxxxxx xx
> xx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx, xxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxx.
> .PP
> Xxxx xxxxxxxx, xx xxx'xx xxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxx x, Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Xxxxxxxx, xxxxxxx xx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx.
> Xx xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx xx xxx xx xxxxx xxx xxxxxxxx
> xxxxxxx
> xxx xxxxxxx xx xxx xxxxxx xx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx xxx xxxxxx
> xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
> '\"
> '\" Add a sufficient number of paragraphs of text to fill several pages.
> '\"
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>
> the second and subsequent pages of this document have a page offset of
> 1.875 inches.  However, if the ".if 1" is changed to ".if 0" the page
> offset remains the default value of 26/27 inches.
>
>    What might be the explanation for this bizarre behavior?
>
>    Thanks.


There was a discussion of the odd .nr PO behavior in February last year 
http://ffii.org/archive/mails/groff/2003/Feb/0021.html
In short, it is suggested to use 
.nr PO somevalue
.po somevalue
in pairs on the first page.

-- 

with best regards / mit freundlichen Grüßen

   Heinz-Jürgen Oertel