groff -Tascii <<'EOF'
.nf
^^^
This instruction causes the empty line. Just try to insert three
`.br' lines to get three line breaks.
[snip]
Only use .nf while replaying a diversion (to avoid reformatting), not
while defining it.
Thanks for responding... I'm still not quite getting it, and hoping you can find
another way to explain. A .br doesn't -create- a pending line, it just flushes
a pending partial line if there is one (right?) Inserting three .br in a row
does not create three blank lines. Clearly something besides a break has to
happen
to create a pending line.
What I don't get is where the "pending" line comes from in a diversion which
contains absolutely no text at all, just a solitary ".br". See example below.
The final .br is necessary to capture the last partial line _if_ there is one.
But if there is _not_ anything formatted before the .br, why does the .br
output a line anyway? What puts something into the pending buffer?
groff -Tascii <<'EOF'
.box xxx
.\"There is nothing here, so I expected nothing in the diversion
.br
.box
.nf
.xxx
After the box.
EOF
=>(blank line)
After the box.
Thanks again for your help.
-Jim
