NAME¶
tblcvt -
troffcvt preprocessor to convert
tbl-format tables
SYNTAX¶
tblcvt [
file ] ...
DESCRIPTION¶
tblcvt examines
troff input for tables that would normally be
processed by the
tbl program, i.e., for lines bracketed by the
.TS table start and
.TE table end requests.
tblcvt parses
table specifications and data and converts it to a form that
troffcvt
can more easily handle. This is useful for document processing commands that
use
troffcvt, since
troffcvt has knowledge only of the
troff input language, and knows nothing of the
tbl input
language.
tblcvt is a direct replacement for
tbl. Suppose you would normally
process a document using
tbl and
troff (or
groff, etc.)
like this:
% tbl file ... | troff ...
To format the document using
tblcvt and
troffcvt, use a command
like this:
% tblcvt file ... | troffcvt ...
Actually, it's more likely that you'll be using one of the
troffcvt front
ends such as
troff2html than that you'll be using
troffcvt
directly.
troffcvt in the preceding command may be replaced by the name
of the front end:
% tblcvt file ... | troff2html ...
If it seems that
troffcvt or a front end are not reading the output from
tblcvt , specify
- after the option list to explicitly tell them
to read the standard input after processing their other options:
% tblcvt file ... | troffcvt ... -
% tblcvt file ... | troff2html ... -
DIAGNOSTICS¶
Diagnostic messages are written in this format:
tblcvt:line l (table t, section
s): message...
This indicates that a problem was detected at line number
l, and that
tblcvt considers the line to be part of table number
t and
section
s within the table. Section numbers start at one and are
incremented for each
.T& request that occurs within a table
specification.
SEE ALSO¶
troffcvt(1)
tblcvt - A troffcvt Preprocessor
WHO-TO-BLAME¶
Paul DuBois,
dubois@primate.wisc.edu.
BUGS¶
For the most part,
tblcvt assumes your tables make sense, i.e., are legal
according to the
tbl input language.
tblcvt may complain about
malformed table constructs (if it detects them), but it may also get confused
by them and generate garbage output.
tblcvt generates
troff output that uses long request names, so you
can't use compatibility mode
-C ( option) with
troffcvt or a
troffcvt front end.
tblcvt doesn't support vertically-spanned lines. It prints a warning when
it detects one, but the table output won't be correct.