Re: [Groff] how not to number the cover page? and not to show page number on the front page?

[Anton Shterenlikht]

        From address@hidden Thu Aug 23 13:28:51 2012

        On 22/08/12 23:49, Anton Shterenlikht wrote:
        > Thank you. Here's a small document:
        >
        > \" process with mm

        I'm not an mm user, but surely this is wrong?  It introduces a blank 
        input line *before*...

        > .PGNH
        > .PF "''\*(DT''"
        > .COVER

        ...which, according to the groff_mm manpage, is not allowed.  If you 
        introduce that initial comment correctly, as

        .\" process with mm

        (note the introductory dot), then the header will be appropriately 
        omitted on the cover page.

I did some more reading in the various groff-related man
pages and see that you are right. For example, I see
that I broke all 3 of these rules (from roff(7)):

       o Never include empty or blank lines in a roff document.  Instead,  use
         the empty request (a line consisting of a dot only) or a line comment
         .\" if a structuring element is needed.

       o Never start a line with whitespace because this can lead to unexpect-
         ed  behavior.  Indented paragraphs can be constructed in a controlled
         way by roff requests.

       o Start each sentence on a line of its own, for the spacing after a dot
         is handled differently depending on whether it terminates an abbrevi-
         ation or a sentence.  To distinguish both cases, do a line break  af-
         ter each sentence.

I'm new to troff, having used latex for the last 10 years.
In latex none of the above 3 rules are relevant, so
it's easy to make these mistakes.

        However, the next page will still be number 
        2, and I don't know how to fix that, (inserting .pn requests doesn't 
        seem to have the desired effect).

That is solved by (thanks to Anton Shepelev <address@hidden>)
address@hidden -1

Many thanks

Anton