PS TEXT FORMAT Reference Manual

Introduction to TFORM
3–130 11387 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Tips
If you issue a NEW command while a SET BOX command is in effect,
TFORM carries the box to the bottom of the page and closes it (printing
an arrow if you included the keyword), starts a new page, and reopens
the box. This happens even if the very next command after the NEW
command is a SET BOX OFF command—in that case, the result is a
two-line empty box at the top of the new page. If you mean to finish
the box, then start a new page, you must enter a SET BOX OFF
command before the NEW command.
Only the 5530 letter-quality printer can change pitch. If TFORM finds
the SET PITCH command in a file being sent to another type of printer,
TFORM issues a warning message and ignores the command.
Only the 5530 printer can handle interline spacing in fractions of lines.
If you issue a SET SPACING command with a noninteger value in a file
sent to a printer that can’t deal with it, TFORM issues a warning
message and ignores the command.
The SET ERRORS and SET WARNINGS commands determine whether
those conditions are reported on a line-by-line basis. The PRINT
ERRORS and PRINT WARNINGS commands control the actual
printing of error message pages (which are separate from text pages
you produce from the contents of your file).
Tab stop positions are based on the left edge of the paper (or rather the
“logical left edge” if you use the PRINT OFFSET command), not on the
left margin. Suppose for example that you are using a horizontal pitch
of 10 and a PRINT OFFSET 1 INCH command (which establishes a
1-inch left margin of 10 character positions). The leftmost usable tab
stop is column 11, and this is where TFORM sets its implicit tab stop.
Therefore, you must set your tabs at columns greater than 11 for them
to be functional.
All forms of the SET command also cause a line break.