PAGE automatically tracks the number of lines
it has printed so far on the current page.
It uses this count to determine when to
advance to a new page. Sometimes though, it
is desirable to be able to control this count
for special circumstances. An example is a
.BI (binary include). A binary included file
can be anything, but is normally a file
containing a graphics image. When PAGE
performs a binary include, it sends the
contents of the file, byte for byte, to the
output without counting lines. Therefore, in
the case of a graphics image, PAGE would be
unaware of the number of lines which were
used by the image. .SL allows you to set the
line number based on the size of the image
read in.
If the number is preceeded by a + sign:
.sl +8
PAGE will add 8 to whatever the current line
count is. A minus sign "-" will subtract
from the current line count. If neither a
plus or minus sign preceeds the number, the
line count is set to whatever the number is.
If you have an image file which you want to
include in a file, it is useful to create an
include file which contains the dot commands
to assure the image will fit on the remainder
of the current page, include the image file,
and adjust the line count. By placing these
details in an include file, only the one file
is included with a .fi in the main file being
paged. For example, if you have a file named
signatur.img containing a scanned signature
which is 8 lines high, the following include
file would be created, perhaps named
signatur.inc:
.cp 8
.bi signatur.img
.sl +8
The .CP above will cause PAGE to advance to
the top of the next page if there are not at
least 8 lines remaining on the current page.
The .bi causes the file named signatur.img to
be copied to the output. The .sl +8
increments the line count by 8. The file
being paged only needs the following line:
Incode Systems, Inc.