Re: [ms] How to .bp at beginning of text?

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Oliver,

At 2025-05-09T14:48:19+0200, Oliver Corff via GNU roff typesetting
system discussion wrote:
> I am afraid I miss a groff secret again.
> 
> For breaking pages, .bp works as expected if and only if there is text
> before.
> 
> However, with the following start of my ms document, inserting .bp
> between the title display and the first section heading does *not*
> break the page.
> 
> ..DS C
> .\" Title material here
> .AU
> A. U. Thor
> .TL
> How to use .bp correctly?
> .DE
> .bp
> .SH
> The purpose of .bp
> .LP
> The purpose of this instruction is to break pages
> 
> Where is my fault?

When I format this document with groff Git trunk, I get a few
diagnostics.

---snip---
$ groff -ww -a -ms ATTIC/corff-early-bp.ms
troff:ATTIC/corff-early-bp.ms:1: warning: name '.DS' not defined
s.tmac:ATTIC/corff-early-bp.ms:3: error: .AU is not allowed before .TL
<beginning of page>
A. U. Thor
s.tmac:ATTIC/corff-early-bp.ms:7: error: .DE without .DS, .ID, .CD, .LD, .RD, 
or .BD
 How to use .bp correctly?

The purpose of .bp
The purpose of this instruction is to break pages

---end snip---

If I revise the document as follows, I get a display after the cover
page material, but on the same page, then a page break as expected after
the display.

$ cat ATTIC/corff-early-bp-gbr.ms
.TL
Magnum Opus
.AU
A. U. Thor
.AB
How to use .bp correctly?
.AE
.sp 1i
.DS C
complex figure goes here
.DE
.bp
.SH
The purpose of .bp
.LP
The purpose of this instruction is to break pages
$ groff -ww -a -ms ATTIC/corff-early-bp-gbr.ms
<beginning of page>
 Magnum Opus

 A. U. Thor
 ABSTRACT
 How to use .bp correctly?
 complex figure goes here

<beginning of page>
 -2-
The purpose of .bp
The purpose of this instruction is to break pages

---end snip---

`groff -a` does not depict vertical space or centered text, so I'm
attaching nroff mode output, produced with "groff -ww -ms -Tutf8
ATTIC/corff-early-bp-gbr.ms > ATTIC/corff-early-bp-gbr.txt".

Regards,
Branden









                           Magnum Opus


                           A. U. Thor


                            ABSTRACT

          How to use .bp correctly?








                    complex figure goes here










































                               ‐2‐


The purpose of .bp

The purpose of this instruction is to break pages

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature