Re: [Groff] horizontal trap

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

Tadziu Hoffmann <address@hidden> wrote:
 |> A trap set just below the current output position could record
 |> the maximum .n seen on this page, moving the trap down each time.
 |
 |Indeed, trapping output instead of input would have the added
 |advantage that overlong lines could be detected even if the
 |text was processed in fill mode.
 |
 |> At the bottom of the page, if the maximum is too long, flag
 |> this page as a problem;  for example, .tm output, or add
 |> something to the page itself for searching.
 |
 |But if we're only interested in flagging the output pages
 |with no direct connection to the location of the problematic
 |material in the input, then trapping every single output line
 |strikes me as a bit complicated.  I'd suggest simply diverting
 |the page contents and then testing the diversion's width.

Simply dumping into a diversion is what i do for my VERBATIM
macro, too.  I'm however not testing the width.  It seems i never
made it yet to overtake that from my partially lost TeX package,
which actually does, and also supports five different builtin
styles for verbatim output instead of only a silly numbered one.
What a shame.
(I refrained from posting wonderful hookable TeX code to this list
at this point, but i also do love it!  And roff, but i didn't know
that back then.)

 |(If one is doing multi-column output then I guess it would
 |be expedient to divert the output anyway, so this could be
 |conveniently combined with testing for overlong lines.)

--steffen