I've been working on a nmh manpage, and I've been reading docs/README.manpages,
and I'm a bit confused. Specifically, by the stuff which sets up a table:
.PP
.RS 5
.nf
.ta \w'/rnd/phyl/Mail/EP 'u +\w'has ddd messages 'u +\w'(ddd\-ddd); 'u
FOLDER \0\0\0\0\0\0# MESSAGES RANGE CUR (OTHERS)
ff has \0no messages.
inbox+ has \016 messages (\03\-\022); cur=\05.
mh has \076 messages (15\-\076); cur=70.
.fi
.RE
.PP
Ok, I understand that ".PP" is new paragraph, ".RS" is an indent (although
I'm not sure what the units are), and .nf is "no fill". And I understand
that .ta sets tab stops .... but I'm confused by the syntax. Specifically,
what are the \w'/rnd/phyl/Mail/EP ' stuff (it doesn't even appear in
the output!), the 'u. and the +\w', etc etc. I understand that after that
the cells are separated by tabs, but I don't understand waht the \0 is for.
Also ... why, exactly, do we use \- instead of -?
Sorry to sound like a n00b, but when I came to town there was always an
amazing lack of documentation on troff, so I never ended up using it.
--Ken
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