On (post-)V10: echo '.EQ define f % $1 % f("a,b") .EN' | eqn emits .lf 1 - .EQ .ds 11 "\f2a,b\fP .if 1m>\n(.v .ne 1m .rn 11 10 \&\*(10 .EN .lf 5 On a Linux system with GNU eqn (groff) version 1.22.3, the output is rather more verbose (48 lines!), but the troff result is just an a (rather than the proper a,b) and eqn complains eqn:<standard input>:3: newline before end of quoted text I assume this Linux result is more or less what Doug expects. Norman Wilson Toronto ON (still heating my basement with a MicroVAX)