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From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Getting rid of cut marks in troff
Message-ID: <4924@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Jan-87 20:20:53 EST
Article-I.D.: mimsy.4924
Posted: Tue Jan  6 20:20:53 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 7-Jan-87 00:38:42 EST
References: <2369@psuvax1.UUCP> <742@imagen.UUCP> <4880@mimsy.UUCP> <2062@tektools.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 29

>In article <4880@mimsy.UUCP> I wrote:
>>Cut marks, if any, should be generated not by the input macros,
>>nor by the formatter, but by the post processor.

>In article <2062@tektools.UUCP> robs@tektools.UUCP (Robert Sleator) writes:
>Which would probably make it a royal pain for the user to modify cutmarks
>for smaller pages (e.g., five by nine inch pages).

Not so.  Either you are printing on continuous roll paper or not.
If you are printing onto sheet paper, you want cut marks if and
only if you will use less than a full page; in this case, you can
add cut marks by writing or modifying macros.  If you are using
continuous forms, you will always want cut marks; the only variable
is their placement.  If the pages are larger than usual, and the
output language is properly designed, the postprocessor's cut marks
will mark the larger-than-normal pages; if not, the postprocessor's
cut marks will mark a normal size page, and you can then ignore
(or disable) these marks and use the same macros as in the sheet
paper case to generate the same cut marks.

Either way, it is wrong for the formatter to generate cut marks by
default, and it is wrong for a continuous roll output device not
to have cut marks by default.  But only the post processor (and
the user) knows whether the ultimate output is continuous or sheet
fed.  Yes, the formatter must be able to generate cut marks or
alignment marks, but it should not do so by default.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
UUCP:	seismo!mimsy!chris	ARPA/CSNet:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu