runoff.section

handles automatic chapter section numbering and formatting, in conjunction with the '.chapter' command.

The '.section' command automatically starts the next section at depth 'sect.number', where 'sect.number' is the range 1-5.

The text is printed following the section number and a '.skip' occurs. The text is recorded as the section heading in the Table of Contents.

If no text appears on the '.section' command, no '.skip' occurs and the section is not recorded in the Table of Contents.

Section numbers are incremented automatically and the section number is printed in the form '1.2.3.4.5', with 'n' digits printed.

Conventionally the '.section' command is followed by a blank line before the next paragraph starts.

Since the '.section' command causes a '.break' which terminates the preceding paragraph, and since the text following the '.section' command is placed immediately into an ouput line and output prior to a consideration of the next line, the blank line after the '.section' command can be avoided by not indenting the first line of the next paragraph. That is, if the processor does not know that the next line starts a paragraph, it will not skip a line. It may be necessary to use an '.indent margin' if paragraph indentation is desired, however.