UNIX° TEXT PROCESSING

The mm Macros

A macro package provides a way of describing the format of various kinds of documents. Each document presents its own specific problems, and macros help to provide a simple and flexible solution. The mm macro package is designed to help you format letters, proposals, memos, technical papers, and reports. A text file that contains mm macros can be processed by either nroff or troff, the two text formatting programs in UNIX. The output from these programs can be displayed on a terminal screen or printed on a line printer, a laser printer, or a typesetter.

Some users of the mm macro package learn only a few macros and work productively. Others choose from a variety of macros to produce a number of different formats. More advanced users modify the macro definitions and extend the capabilities of the package by defining their own special-purpose macros.

Macros are the words that make up a format description language. Like words, the result of a macro is often determined by context. That is, you may not always understand your output by looking up an individual macro, just like you may not understand the meaning of an entire sentence by looking up a particular word. Without examining the macro definition, you may find it hard to figure out which macro is causing a particular result. Macros are interrelated; some macros call other macros, like a subroutine in a program, to ...