The ms package is often used with the tbl, pic,
eqn, and refer preprocessors.
Mark text meant for preprocessors by enclosing it in pairs of tokens
as follows, with nothing between the dot and the macro name. The
preprocessors match these tokens only at the start of an input line.
.TS [H] ¶.TE ¶Demarcate a table to be processed by the tbl preprocessor. The
optional argument H to TS instructs ms to
repeat table rows (often column headings) at the top of each new page
the table spans, if applicable; calling the TH macro marks the
end of such rows. The GNU tbl(1) man page provides a
comprehensive reference to the preprocessor and offers examples of its
use.
.PS ¶.PE ¶.PF ¶PS begins a picture to be processed by the gpic
preprocessor; either of PE or PF ends it, the latter with
“flyback” to the vertical position at its top. You can create
pic input manually or with a program such as xfig.
.EQ [align [label]] ¶.EN ¶Demarcate an equation to be processed by the eqn preprocessor.
The equation is centered by default; align can be ‘C’,
‘L’, or ‘I’ to (explicitly) center, left-align, or indent it
by the amount stored in the DI register, respectively. If
specified, label is set right-aligned.
.[ ¶.] ¶Demarcate a bibliographic citation to be processed by the refer
preprocessor. The GNU refer(1) man page provides a
comprehensive reference to the preprocessor and the format of its
bibliographic database. Type ‘man refer’ at the command line to
view it.
When refer emits collected references (as might be done on a
“Works Cited” page), it interpolates the REFERENCES string as
an unnumbered heading (SH).
The following is an example of how to set up a table that may print across two or more pages.
.TS H
allbox;
Cb | Cb .
Part→Description
_
.TH
.T&
GH-1978→Fribulating gonkulator
…the rest of the table follows…
.TE
|
Attempting to place a multi-page table inside a keep can lead to
unpleasant results, particularly if the tbl allbox option
is used.
Mathematics can be typeset using the language of the eqn
preprocessor.
.EQ C (\*[SN-NO-DOT]a)
p ~ = ~ q sqrt { ( 1 + ~ ( x / q sup 2 ) }
.EN
|
This input formats a labelled equation. We used the SN-NO-DOT
string to base the equation label on the current heading number, giving
us more flexibility to reorganize the document.
Use groff options to run preprocessors on the input:
-e for geqn, -p for gpic,
-R for grefer, and -t for gtbl.