Contents of Devanagari Text

Devanagari Text

The second part of the input file on which the preprocessor acts is actual DN text. The remainder of the input file (text in latin script, TEX-commands, etc. ) is left untouched. Of course the preprocessor must be told where DN text starts or ends. You can delimit DN text in two ways. Firstly, DN text can be surrounded by {\dn and } . ( means a space character). I.e. {\dn acchaa} produces aQCA. Secondly, if the preprocessor command @dollars is given, DN text can also be delimited by dollars: $acchaa$ . The second method is convenient when you have to switch often between DN text and text in latin script. For large pieces of text in DN however, the first method is to be preferred, because this way it is easier to determine where DN text ends and where it begins.

What can be typed between DN text-delimiters?

All characters that produce DN text as described in section 2.
The characters ! ` ' ( ) * - : ; = ? , [ ]+ which produce the corresponding punctuation marks. (`` produces `` and '' produces ''). Consecutive - characters have the same effects as in TEX and LaTeX. If you want to print punctuation marks in latin script other then those mentioned above, you have to type a final } or $ to end the DN text and type the punctuation mark, after which you can switch back to DN text mode.
The character % which produces no output. It has the effect that everything after the % upto the end of the line is considered as a comment.
Left and right braces: { and } , as long as the number of left braces equals the number of right braces. They produce no output but can be used for grouping.
TEX or LaTeX commands without arguments or with one argument consisting of text, as long as these commands do not explicitely or implicitely change the current font. The text in the argument is interpreted as DN text. The following commands are legal:
```
\bigskip
\centerline{acchaa}
```
But these are illegal:
```
\hspace{.1in}
\begin{center}
\it hello
```

From the above and section 2 it follows that the following characters are illegal between DN-delimiters:
^ < > x w F N Q S V W X Y Z and the following characters when they are not used in a combination mentioned in the table on page 2: " . and ~