More fonts in troff?

[msc at qubix.UUCP]

Re: the following questions

	Has anybody hacked up troff to handle more than four fonts?  I
	know about the Lincoln-Sudbury nroff enhancements, but I don't
	believe they're applicable to troff, i.e., they appear to be
	nroff-specific.  The version of troff that we use with our
	typesetter was hacked up by a long-left wizard to accommodate 8
	fonts at the expense of some size bits.

Yes indeed.  Objects in troff are stored in 16 bit quantities with 2 bits
for the font and 4 bits for the point size.  Your wizard made a very
ugly hack.  I don't think there are enough point sizes as it is.  The only
sensible way to get more fonts is to use ditroff.  It would be far easier to
write a post-processor for ditroff than try to hack troff again.

	Does anybody know if vcat is bound to four fonts, or if it
	would be fairly easy to make it deal with more fonts if troff
	didn't have the intrinsic limitation.

I suspect that vcat will need modifications such as giving it more space
for fonts tables etc., modifying the argument checking etc.  There is probably
nothing major but again I suspect the time would be better spent writing
a post processor for ditroff.

			Mark Callow
			Qubix Graphic Systems Inc.
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