On 11-Dec-05 Heinz-Jürgen Oertel wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I'm searching for a way to put strings in pic variable,
> but found no way doing it.
> What I like to do is something like:
>
> .PS
> bcolor = "red"
>
> define cbox {
> box wid $1 color bcolor
> }
> .PE
>
> .PS
> cbox(1) "this is red"
> bcolor "yellow"
> cbox(1) "this is yellow"
> .PE
I *think* (but am not absolutely sure) that the reason your
approach does not work is that the assignment "=" has the syntax
variable = expression
and, as far as I can tell, "expression" in pic can only be numeric
(or logical), so that there is no such thing as a string-valued
expression (or variable). More generally, a string (either quoted
literally or as returned by 'sprintf') is an object, like 'box'.
However, it is possible to do what you want by macro substitution:
.PS
define cbox {
box wid $1 color $2
}
.PE
.PS
bcolor="red"
cbox(1,"red") "this is red"
cbox(1,"yellow") "this is yellow"
.PE
This does not evaluate any expressions: When (e.g.) "red" is
encountered in 'cbox(1,"red")' it is substituted for $2 in
the definition of 'cbox', i.e. it effectively re-writes 'cbox'.
Hoping this helps!
Ted.
>
> Another interesting feature would be if
> \n[.M] could return the numerical values of the color components.
> In this case one could define a new color which is sometimes darker or
> more
> bright, or "more red" etc. This can be used to produce shaded colored
> boxes
> in pic.
>
> Hope I get help
> Regards
> Heinz
>
>
>
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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: 11-Dec-05 Time: 14:02:36
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