Multi-columns in ms, again

[Oliver Corff]

Dear All,

in April 29, I asked whether there is a possibility to resume one-column
text after a two-column text on the same page. Your answers, uni sono,
said what the the manual says: returning to one-column mode will always
finish the page and begin a new one.

The reason for this behaviour is to "[m]ake sure we don't exit if there
are still floats or footnotes left-over." (line 578 of s.tmac, groff
1.22.4)*

I am by far not familiar enough to modify the macros in s.tmac, so may I
kindly ask for some guidance?

Task: create a private 1C-style command which

    - perhaps named .1Cs ("s" as in simplified or stripped down)
    - flushes the material not yet typeset, happily ignoring any floats
of footnotes, in two balanced columns; certainly using .pg*end-col, I
assume?
    - returns to one-column mode, trusting that
    - my file is a clean text file without surprises, so need to take
care of footnotes etc.

I could start with line 527 of s.tmac, that's where the definition of
.1C starts.

But how many lines between 527 and 601 do I really have to copy into a
private macro definition file? While I understand individual definitions
(the macro names are quite transparent) I fail to make sense of how
everything works together.

Thank you very much for your occasional enlightenment,

Best regards,

Oliver.

* Please bear with me that this particular machine hasn't yet been
upgraded to groff 1.23. It will happen.


--
Dr. Oliver Corff
Wittelsbacherstr. 5A
10707 Berlin
GERMANY
Tel.: +49-30-85727260
mailto:oliver.corff@email.de