Because the letter macros are a subset of the document
processing macros, you can use
control macros
to design correspondence to your own specifications. However,
mom makes no pretence of providing complete design
flexibility in the matter of letters, which are, after all, simple
communicative documents whose only real style requirements are that
they be neat and professional-looking.
Tutorial on writing letters
Mom letters begin, like all mom
processed documents, with a
reference macro
(in this case,
AUTHOR),
a
DOCTYPE
(LETTER, obviously), the essential
PRINTSTYLE
macro, and
START.
.AUTHOR "Yannick P. Guique" .DOCTYPE LETTER .PRINTSTYLE TYPESET .STARTPRINTSTYLE, above, could also be TYPEWRITE. Mom has no objection to creating letters that look like they were typed on an Underwood by a shapely secretary with great gams back in the 1940s.
After the START macro, you enter data pertinent to your letter: the date, the addressee (in business correspondence, typically both name and address), the addressor (that's you; in business correspondence, typically both name and address), and a greeting (in full, e.g. "Dear Mr. Smith,").
The macros for entering the data are simple (they're not even
toggles)
and entered in an intuitive order.
.DATE
.TO
.FROM
.GREETING
Mom ignores any you omit and spaces the letter's opening according to what you do include.
Once you've filled in what you need to get a letter started, simply type the letter, introducing each and every paragraph with the PP macro.
At the end of the letter, should you wish an indented closing ("Yours truly," "Sincerely," "Hugs and kisses"), invoke the macro CLOSING on a line by itself and follow it with the text of the closing. N.B. Don't put your name here; mom supplies it automatically from AUTHOR with enough space to leave room for your signature.
Assuming our tutorial letter is for business correspondence, here's what the complete letter looks like.
.AUTHOR "Yannick P. Guique" .DOCTYPE LETTER .PRINTSTYLE TYPESET .START .DATE August 25, 2004 .TO GUILLAUME BARRIÈRES Minidoux Corporation 5000 Pannes Drive Redmond, Virginia .FROM Y.P. GUIQUE 022 Umask Road St-Sauveur-en-dehors-de-la-mappe, Québec .GREETING Dear Mr. Barrières, .PP It has come to my attention that you have been lobbying the US government to prohibit the use of open source software by endeavouring to outlaw so-called "warranty free" applications. .PP I feel it is my duty to inform you that the success of your operating system with its embedded web browser relies heavily on open source programs and protocols, most notably TCP/IP. .PP Therefore, in the interests of your corporation's fiscal health, I strongly advise that you withdraw support for any US legislation that would cripple or render illegal open source development. .CLOSING Sincerely,
.../#
)
Other important style defaults are listed below, and may be changed via the typesetting macros or the document processing control macros prior to START. Assume that any style parameter not listed below is the same as for PRINTSTYLE TYPESET or PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE.
PARAMETER PRINTSTYLE TYPESET PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE --------- ------------------ -------------------- Paper size 8.5 x 11 inches 8.5 x 11 inches Left/right margins 1.25 inches 1.25 inches Header margin 3.5 picas 3.5 picas (for page numbers) Header gap 3 picas 3 picas (for page numbers) Family Times Roman Courier Font roman roman Point size 12 12 Line space 13.5 12 (i.e. singlespaced) Paragraph indent 3 ems 3 picas Spaced paragraphs yes no Footers* yes yes Footer margin 3 picas 3 picas Footer gap 3 picas 3 picas Page numbers top, centered top, centered *Footers contain a "next page" number of the form .../#
Invoke DATE on a line by itself, with the date underneath, like this:
.DATE October 31, 2002
Invoke TO on a line by itself, with the name and address of the addressee underneath, like this:
.TO JOHN SMITH 10 Roberts Crescent Bramladesh, Ont.
Invoke FROM on a line by itself, with the name and address of the addressor underneath, like this:
.FROM JOE BLOW 15 Brunette Road Ste-Vieille-Andouille, Québec
Invoke GREETING on a line by itself, with the full salutation you want for the letter, like this:
.GREETING Dear Mr. Smith,
Invoke CLOSING on a line by itself after the body of the letter, with the closing you'd like (e.g. "Yours truly,"), like this:
.CLOSING Yours truly,
If you don't want mom to print a "next
page" number at the bottom of multi-page letters, invoke
.NO_SUITE
, on a line by itself, prior to
START.