Re: [Groff] pound sign and mom letters

[Peter Schaffter]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2004, Robert Goulding wrote:
> I've always written (in this order): 'from' address, flush right,
> with date directly beneath it (no extra vertical spacing); 1
> vertical space; 'to' address, flush left --different again from
> the OP's style (mine may be an English standard).  I would be
> very interested in using mom for letters, if there were some
> flexibility in the layout -but I can imagine designing the
> interface could be a nightmare.

Actually, it's no nightmare at all (for once).  I rewrote the
macros this afternoon after I got the OP.

> Could you, perhaps, make TO, FROM and DATE toggles (with a default
> value for DATE filled in), then recall them, such as:
> 
> .TO
> .LEFT
> GUILLAUME BARRIÈRES
> Minidoux Corporation
> 5000 Pannes Drive
> Redmond, Virginia.
> .TO END
> .
> .FROM
> .RIGHT
> Y.P. GUIQUE
> 022 Umask Road
> St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Québec.
> .FROM END
> .
> .DATE
> .RIGHT
> 20 February, 2004.
> .DATE END
> .
> .SHOW-FROM
> .SHOW-DATE
> .SPACE
> .SHOW-TO
> .GREETING
> Dear Mr. Barrières,
> .PP
> It has come to my attention that you have been lobbying the
> US government to prohibit the use of open source software...
> 
> (or something along those lines- I guess you would want to use 
> different names for the FROM and TO toggles, for backward compatibility 
> with existing letters).

I thought along lines very similar to yours, and believe I've come
up with an implementation that resembles your example, though
somewhat simpler in execution.  Using your example, but as it would
be input with the new letter handling:

        .TO
        GUILLAUME BARRIÈRES
        Minidoux Corporation
        5000 Pannes Drive
        Redmond, Virginia.
        .FROM
        .RIGHT
        Y.P. GUIQUE
        022 Umask Road
        St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Québec.
        .DATE
        .RIGHT
        20 February, 2004.
        .GREETING
        Dear Mr. Barrières,
        .PP
        It has come to my attention that you have been lobbying the
        US government to prohibit the use of open source software...

You'll be able to enter the header fields in any order you like,
and have them output in the same order.  By default, they'll all
be flush left, but that can be overridden with .RIGHT.

Also, by default, each letter header, on output, will be separated
by a single linespace.  In the case where a user doesn't want the
space, .SPACE -1v (or .SP -1v or .RLD -1v) at the end of a header's
input will remove it, as in

        .FROM
        .RIGHT
        Y.P. GUIQUE
        022 Umask Road
        St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Québec.
        .SP -1v
        .DATE
        .RIGHT
        20 February, 2004.

which will print (approximately)

                                     Y.P. GUIQUE
                                  022 Umask Road
        St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Québec.
                               20 February, 2004.

For backward compatibility,

    .DATE
    <input>
    .TO
    <input>
    .FROM
    <input>
    .GREETING
    <input>

used in exactly that order with no quad calls, will format the
letter headers in exactly the same way as they have been up till
now.

1.1.7-a should be out within the next couple of days, and will
incorporate these changes.

-- 
Peter Schaffter

Author of _The Schumann Proof_, appearing fall, 2004
(pub. RendezVous Press, Canada)