1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 7.0.3, https://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ -->
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<!-- This manual documents GNU troff version 1.23.0.
Copyright � 1994-2023 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free
Documentation License". -->
<title>Formatter Instructions (The GNU Troff Manual)</title>
<meta name="description" content="Formatter Instructions (The GNU Troff Manual)">
<meta name="keywords" content="Formatter Instructions (The GNU Troff Manual)">
<meta name="resource-type" content="document">
<meta name="distribution" content="global">
<meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
<link href="index.html" rel="start" title="Top">
<link href="Request-Index.html" rel="index" title="Request Index">
<link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents">
<link href="GNU-troff-Reference.html" rel="up" title="GNU troff Reference">
<link href="Registers.html" rel="next" title="Registers">
<link href="Identifiers.html" rel="prev" title="Identifiers">
</head>
<body lang="en">
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Formatter-Instructions">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="Registers.html" accesskey="n" rel="next">Registers</a>, Previous: <a href="Identifiers.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Identifiers</a>, Up: <a href="GNU-troff-Reference.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">GNU <code class="code">troff</code> Reference</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Request-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<hr>
<h3 class="section" id="Formatter-Instructions-1">5.6 Formatter Instructions</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-formatter-instructions"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-instructing-the-formatter"></a>
<p>To support documents that require more than filling, automatic line
breaking and hyphenation, adjustment, and supplemental inter-sentence
space, the <code class="code">roff</code> language offers two means of embedding
instructions to the formatter.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-request-1"></a>
<p>One is a <em class="dfn">request</em>, which begins with a control character and takes
up the remainder of the input line. Requests often perform relatively
large-scale operations such as setting the page length, breaking the
line, or starting a new page. They also conduct internal operations
like defining macros.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-escape-sequence"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-sequence_002c-escape"></a>
<p>The other is an <em class="dfn">escape sequence</em>, which begins with the escape
character and can be embedded anywhere in the input, even in arguments
to requests and other escape sequences. Escape sequences interpolate
special characters, strings, or registers, and handle comparatively
minor formatting tasks like sub- and superscripting.
</p>
<p>Some operations, such as font selection and type size alteration, are
available via both requests and escape sequences.
</p>
<ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="Control-Characters.html" accesskey="1">Control Characters</a></li>
<li><a href="Invoking-Requests.html" accesskey="2">Invoking Requests</a></li>
<li><a href="Calling-Macros.html" accesskey="3">Calling Macros</a></li>
<li><a href="Using-Escape-Sequences.html" accesskey="4">Using Escape Sequences</a></li>
<li><a href="Delimiters.html" accesskey="5">Delimiters</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
|
