tbl, beginner's difficulty with 'box'

[Doug Gwyn <gwyn>]

> When I give a 'box' directive in the tbl input, it prints the vertical
> lines of the box one at a time, at the BOTTOM of the page, AFTER it
> has printed everything else.

Sounds like you are not getting the proper reverse line-feeds for your
terminal.  Either
	(a)  You are not specifying the proper terminal type to nroff
		(-T option), or
	(b)  Your terminal type is not known to nroff, or
	(c)  Your terminal does not support reverse paper motion.
In the latter two cases, use "col" to turn the bidirectional paper
motions in the nroff output into a single-direction page image for
priniting on your terminal.