Help with man macros

[John E Van Deusen III]

In article <434 at osc.COM> rp at osc.COM (Rich Patterson) writes:
> I have a question about the man macros.
> ...
> I assume is that the overstrike or backspacing is being used for
> boldfacing.  I'm trying to get nroff not to output those overstrike
> characters.
> ...
>osc!rp at pacbell.com

Actually your question has nothing to do with man macros: it has to do
with nroff.  It is my understanding that certain newer versions of nroff
use terminfo, but the older versions are driven by a terminal-specific
table located in the /usr/lib/term directory.  Most systems do not
provide the source code for users to compile their own driving tables.
Even when this is possible the table functions are fairly limited.  For
example, it is possible to specify a character sequence to put the
printer into an underline mode, and this sequence is output when .ft2
(or .ft i, \fI, \f2, .ul, .cu, .i, .I), Italics mode, is invoked.  The
problem is that italics mode should not underline blanks, but the
underline mode of a printer does.

The solution that I have used is to create a filter, using yacc & lex,
to recognize the various overstrike sequences that are output by nroff
for the default terminal, usually a model 37 Teletype.  The filter then
outputs the escape sequences for some desired printer instead.  This
filter is incorporated into the interface program that is associated
with a given printer device in the lp system.  See lpadmin(1M).
--
John E Van Deusen III, PO Box 9283, Boise, ID  83707, (208) 343-1865

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