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On the power of traps and diversions in a document preparation language
Author(s) -
Witten Ian H.,
Bonham Mike,
Strong Evelyne
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
software: practice and experience
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1097-024X
pISSN - 0038-0644
DOI - 10.1002/spe.4380121204
Subject(s) - macro , computer science , column (typography) , programming language , software , power (physics) , engineering drawing , engineering , telecommunications , physics , quantum mechanics , frame (networking)
This note illustrates the power of software interrupts (traps) and text diversions in document preparation languages by considering three difficult problems in typesetting: figure placement; setting text in arbitrary shapes; and balancing final columns in multi‐column layout. The solution of each of these in the nroff document preparation system is discussed, and an Appendix gives the nroff macros which accomplish the tasks.