Re: [MS] Split Header

[Dave Kemper]

On 12/12/23, Wael Karram <wael@waelk.tech> wrote:
> Now, it doesn't work anymore after a recent groff update. What ends
> up happening is that indeed the text is aligned as intended - but on
> different consecutive lines.
> Omitting the DEs makes it work as intended, but gives a warning about un-
> terminated DSes.

Hi Wael,

Can you be more specific about which version of groff you upgraded
from and which one you upgraded to?

When I run your sample input on groff 1.22.4 (or earlier versions,
even 1.19.2), the two columns aren't aligned:

$ cat wael-test.ms
.mk
.DS L
Left-aligned side
.DE
.rt
.DS R
Right-aligned side
.DE
$ nroff -ms wael-test.ms | head

                                          Right-aligned side




Left-aligned side



So it'd be helpful to know what version you upgraded from where these
two columns were aligned for you.  But I do observe that in both those
older groffs, removing the .DE line does give the results you
reported, including the error:

$ fgrep -v .DE wael-test.ms | nroff -ms | head
:0: macro error: diversion open while ejecting page (recovering)






Left-aligned side                         Right-aligned side





Further, when I run it using the latest (1.23) groff, the two lines
aren't next to each other at all.

$ nroff -ms wael-test.ms | head
s.tmac:wael-test.ms:4: error: must be in top-level environment, not
'nf', when first page is started






Left-aligned side
Right-aligned side


So I'm unable to reproduce your results, unless you upgraded from a
version even older than 1.19.2, to version 1.22.4 or something else
before 1.23.