Full text of YASC (please bother with us)

[Rob Warnock]

+---------------
| How do you change the line length in the macro package "-ms" ? I tried
| the .nr LL 7.5 or others, and it would not work.
| {akgua,ut-sally}!usl!sigma
| P.S Enter it to the stupid question of the year award...
+---------------

You know, I used to have problems with that, and asked MY "stupid question",
and got an answer from an older-timer, so now I pass it on to you...

Setting the registers (variables) such as "LL" is not sufficient if you
want the change to occur immediately (or in some cases to stick at all?).
You need to also change the underlying "nroff" register. The following is
what I typically use as a preamble:

	.RT			You need one "ms" command to initialize things.
	.nr LL 7i		Set the line length (width) that "ms" knows.
	.ll 7i			Tell "nroff" about it.
	.nr PO 0.75i		Move the page over a bit.
	.po 0.75i		Make sure "nroff" agrees.
	.DA 11 Jan 1985		(Personal preference... I like the date it was
				 EDITED, not the date it was printed.)
	.LP			Or .TL or .PP etc.

Hope that helps.


Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

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