troff underlining problem

[Harvard Townsend]

We are running the `troff' which comes with 4.2BSD on a VAX 11/780 (not
`ditroff').  Has anyone fixed the way it does underlining?  The problem
shows up in 2 places.  The first is when an underlined word is hyphenated
and thus spread across 2 lines.  The underline is drawn on the second line,
extending on into the left margin since it is expecting to underline the
first part of the word which is on the line above.  This also happens when
you are underlining a phrase which gets split across 2 lines.  The other
problem shows up when underlining a phrase, even if it is not split across
2 lines.  If some white space is added between words in the phrase (in
fill mode) to get justification of the right margin, the phrase then
extends past the end of the underline.  The length of the underline is not
adjusted to account for the extra space added between the words in the phrase.
The horizontal motion apparently is calculated before the hyphenation and
justification is done.
I'm assuming it is a troff problem, rather than the device driver (we
are printing the documents on a QMS Lasergraphix 800.  "qcat" does
the CAT-to-QUIC code translation).  Shutting off hyphenation and
underlining individual words instead of phrases has gotten us by when
needed, but I would like to fix the problem.  Does `ditroff' handle
this properly?  If so, can anyone point me to a `ditroff' implementation
for 4.2BSD on a VAX?  I appreciate any help.
______________________________________
Harvard Townsend, Systems Administrator
Kansas State University
Dept. of Computer Science
Manhattan, KS 66506   (913)532-6350
CSNET:  harv at kansas-state -or- harv%kansas-state at csnet-relay.arpa
BITNET: harv at ksuvax1.bitnet -or- harv%ksuvax1.bitnet at WISCVM.WISC.EDU
UUCP: ihnp4!ltuxa!ksuvax1!harv