Pic advice (almost a bug)

[William LeFebvre]

In article <364 at hropus.UUCP>, jrw at hropus.UUCP (Jim Webb) writes:
> > If you get boxes and lines that don't quite match up,
> > look to the pltroff.c file for the answer. Tho this isn't a bug,
> > these printer dependencies could be handled more gracefully.
> 
> Or, you could use the -D option on pic, which says to use all \D requests
> instead of multiple rules...
> -- 

I just made it the default for everyone here.  The hack method of
using \l and \L was put in to make printing pic-ed things on the
CAT/4 (or /8) phototypesetter faster.  You see, they did graphics on the
CAT by printing a WHOLE BUNCH of periods.  You can imagine how slow that
was.  So, using \l and \L (the horizontal and vertical line drawing
troff commands) was MUCH faster, although not as accurate.

Such a trick isn't needed on today's laser printers, since there is
(typically) so much graphics support built in.  So, essentially, the
"quick" method, as it was called, is obsolete and everyone should use -D,
so why not make it the default?

 
-- 
			William LeFebvre
			Department of Computer Science
			Rice University
			<phil at Rice.edu>