[groff] 04/09: [docs]: Drop mention of terminal tab stop width.

[G. Branden Robinson]

gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
in repository groff.

commit 6515ea8ba524917dd18fec65950cc6f026356aba
Author: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
AuthorDate: Tue Sep 12 03:18:20 2023 -0500

    [docs]: Drop mention of terminal tab stop width.
    
    Revert most of 97c911c0875, 2 September.  It doesn't matter to the
    formatter where a terminal output device's tab stops are.  That's a
    matter for grotty(1) to worry about, and by default (that is, if not
    given the `-h` option) even it doesn't care; it uses spaces to align the
    output.
    
    Adding terminfo(3) support to grotty (currently in development) promises
    opportunities for micro-optimization of output.  And bugs, if terminal
    descriptions advertise `hts` and `tbc` capabilities but the device (or
    emulator) doesn't correctly implement them--or someone deliberately
    chooses a $TERM that fits their terminal (emulator) poorly.  Grasping
    randomly at terminal names used to be quite the sport among greenhorn
    Unix users; we might find out if it still is.  (More conservatively, we
    can keep grotty's use of hard tabs exactly where it is, and require
    users to explicitly enable them.)
---
 doc/groff.texi  | 9 ++++-----
 man/groff.7.man | 2 --
 man/roff.7.man  | 2 --
 3 files changed, 4 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/groff.texi b/doc/groff.texi
index c715a0c9e..30acd5243 100644
--- a/doc/groff.texi
+++ b/doc/groff.texi
@@ -5356,11 +5356,10 @@ GNU @code{troff} translates input horizontal tab 
characters (``tabs'')
 and @key{Control+A} characters (``leaders'') into movements to the next
 tab stop.  Tabs simply move to the next tab stop; leaders place enough
 periods to fill the space.  Tab stops are by default located every half
-inch@footnote{Terminals generally set tab stops every eight character
-cells.} measured from the drawing position corresponding to the
-beginning of the input line; see @ref{Page Geometry}.   Tabs and leaders
-do not cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling.  Below, we
-use arrows @arrow{} and bullets @bullet{} to indicate input tabs and
+inch measured from the drawing position corresponding to the beginning
+of the input line; see @ref{Page Geometry}.   Tabs and leaders do not
+cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt filling.  Below, we use
+arrows @arrow{} and bullets @bullet{} to indicate input tabs and
 leaders, respectively.
 
 @Example
diff --git a/man/groff.7.man b/man/groff.7.man
index 4764fd7f2..d131d3d91 100644
--- a/man/groff.7.man
+++ b/man/groff.7.man
@@ -581,8 +581,6 @@ drawing position corresponding to the beginning of the 
input line;
 see section \[lq]Page geometry\[rq] of
 .MR roff 7 .
 .
-(Terminals generally set tab stops every eight character cells.)
-.
 Tabs and leaders do not cause breaks and therefore do not interrupt
 filling.
 .
diff --git a/man/roff.7.man b/man/roff.7.man
index b9536cab2..d16f584ee 100644
--- a/man/roff.7.man
+++ b/man/roff.7.man
@@ -357,8 +357,6 @@ Tab stops are by default located every half inch measured 
from the
 drawing position corresponding to the beginning of the input line;
 see subsection \[lq]Page geometry\[rq] below.
 .
-(Terminals generally set tab stops every eight character cells.)
-.
 With them,
 simple tables can be made.
 .