GROFF_MS(7)                                           GROFF_MS(7)

NAME
       groff_ms - groff ms macros

SYNOPSIS
       groff -ms [ options...  ] [ files...  ]

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  describes  the  GNU  version of the ms
       macros, which is part of  the  groff  document  formatting
       system.  The groff ms macros are intended to be compatible
       with the documented behaviour  of  the  4.3  BSD  Unix  ms
       macros subject to the following limitations:

       o      the  internals  of  groff ms are not similar to the
              internals of Unix ms and so documents  that  depend
              upon implementation details of Unix ms may well not
              work with groff ms;

       o      there is no support for typewriter-like devices;

       o      Berkeley localisms, in particular  the  TM  and  CT
              macros, are not implemented;

       o      groff ms does not provide cut marks;

       o      multiple  line spacing is not allowed (use a larger
              vertical spacing instead);

       o      groff ms does not work in  compatibility  mode  (eg
              with the -C option);

       o      the  error-handling policy of groff ms is to detect
              and report errors, rather than silently  to  ignore
              them.

       The groff ms macros make use of many features of GNU troff
       and therefore cannot be used with any other troff.

       Bell Labs localisms are not implemented in either the  BSD
       ms macros or in the groff ms macros.

       Some  Unix ms documentation says that the CW and GW number
       registers can be used to control the column width and gut-
       ter width respectively.  This is not the case.  These num-
       ber registers are not used in groff ms.

       Macros that cause a reset set  the  indent.   Macros  that
       change  the  indent  do  not  increment  or  decrement the
       indent, but rather set  it  absolutely.   This  can  cause
       problems  for  documents  that define additional macros of
       their own.  The solution is to use not the in request  but
       instead the RS and RE macros.

       The number register GS is set to 1 by the groff ms macros,
       but is not used by the Unix ms  macros.   It  is  intended
       that  documents  that  need  to determine whether they are
       being formatted with Unix ms or groff ms make use of  this
       number register.

       Footnotes  are implemented so that they can safely be used
       within keeps and displays.  Automatically  numbered  foot-
       notes  within  floating  keeps are not recommended.  It is
       safe to have another \** between a \** and the correspond-
       ing .FS; it is required only that each .FS occur after the
       corresponding \** and that the occurrences of .FS  are  in
       the same order as the corresponding occurrences of \**.

       The  strings  \*{  and  \*} can be used to begin and end a
       superscript.

       Some Unix V10 ms features are implemented.  The B,  I  and
       BI  macros  can have an optional third argument which will
       be printed in the current font before the first  argument.
       There  is  a  macro  CW like B that changes to a constant-
       width font.

       The following strings can be redefined to adapt the  groff
       ms macros to languages other than English:

       String      Default Value
       REFERENCES  References
       ABSTRACT    ABSTRACT
       TOC         Table of Contents
       MONTH1      January
       MONTH2      February
       MONTH3      March
       MONTH4      April
       MONTH5      May
       MONTH6      June
       MONTH7      July
       MONTH8      August
       MONTH9      September
       MONTH10     October
       MONTH11     November
       MONTH12     December

       The  font family is reset from the string FAM; at initial-
       ization if this string is undefined it is set to the  cur-
       rent  font  family.  The point size, vertical spacing, and
       inter-paragraph spacing for footnotes are taken  from  the
       number  registers  FPS,  FVS,  and  FPD; at initialization
       these are set to \n(PS-2, \n[FPS]+2, and  \n(PD/2  respec-
       tively;  however,  if  any  of  these  registers  has been
       defined before initialization, it will not  be  set.   The
       hyphenation flags (as set by the .hy request) are set from
       the HY register; if this has not been defined at  initial-
       ization, it will be set to 14.

       Right-aligned displays are available with .DS R and .RD.

       The  following  conventions  are used for names of macros,
       strings and number registers.  External names available to
       documents that use the groff ms macros contain only upper-
       case  letters  and  digits.   Internally  the  macros  are
       divided  into  modules.  Names used only within one module
       are of the form module*name.  Names used outside the  mod-
       ule in which they are defined are of the form module@name.
       Names associated with a particular environment are of  the
       form  environment:name; these are used only within the par
       module, and name does not  have  a  module  prefix.   Con-
       structed  names  used  to implement arrays are of the form
       array!index.  Thus the groff ms macros reserve the follow-
       ing names:

       o      names containing *;

       o      names containing @;

       o      names containing :;

       o      names containing only uppercase letters and digits.

FILES
       /usr/lib/groff/tmac/tmac.s

SEE ALSO
       groff(1), troff(1), tbl(1), pic(1), eqn(1)
       ms(7)

Groff Version 1.11         27 June 1995                         1