> I use
>
> .ds BLD \f3\\$*\fP
>
> and
>
> this text is partly \*[BLD in bold face]
>
> to switch to bold face and back within a line of text.
>
> This works fine as long as there is no german umlaut in the argument
> to BLD.
>
> With an umlaut, I get
>
> groff -Tps -k -t -mom -P-pa4 - > /tmp/4451out.ps
> <standard input>:219: missing `]'
> <standard input>:219: invalid base glyph `u00F6\fPr]' in composite glyph name
> <standard input>:219: warning: can't find special character `'
>
> Seems, groff is confused by the '[' produced by preconv.
>
> Is this a groff bug, or my fault?
It's a limitation of `.ds' and documented also, sort-of:
-- Escape: \*[name arg1 arg2 ...]
Define and access a string variable NAME (one-character name N,
two-character name NM). If NAME already exists, 'ds' overwrites
the previous definition. Only the syntax form using brackets can
take arguments that are handled identically to macro arguments;
the single exception is that a closing bracket as an argument <--
must be enclosed in double quotes. [...] <--
So you should write
this text is partly \*[BLD "in böld fäce"]
Werner
