[bug #61619] [me] doesn't bracket footnote numbers in nroff mode

[G. Branden Robinson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?61619>

                 Summary: [me] doesn't bracket footnote numbers in nroff mode
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: gbranden
            Submitted on: Sat 04 Dec 2021 09:47:34 PM UTC
                Category: Macro - me
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Incorrect behaviour
                  Status: In Progress
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: gbranden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

    _______________________________________________________

Details:

4.4BSD me(7) does, so we should too.

I grabbed "pure" 4.4BSD me(7) from https://svnweb.freebsd.org/csrg/share/me/
and hacked on it just enough to keep groff from screaming its head off about
it with "-w all" to verify its historical behavior.  In the 'meintro.me'
document we get the following from 4.4BSD me(7).


$ groff -b -w all -T utf8 -M./ME-4.4BSD -I./ME-4.4BSD/ -me doc/meintro.me |sed
-n '637,653p'
             4.1.  Footnotes

                     Footnotes  begin with the request .(f and end with the
                request .)f.  The current  footnote  number  is  maintained
                automatically,  and can be used by typing \**, to produce a
                footnote number[1].  The  number  is  automatically  incre‐
                mented after every footnote.  For example, the input:







          ____________________
             [1]Like this.



Here's groff 1.22.4 output.


$ groff -b -ww -T utf8 -me doc/meintro.me |sed -n '637,653p'
   4.1.  Footnotes

           Footnotes begin with the request .(f and end with  the
      request  .)f.   The  current  footnote number is maintained
      automatically, and can be used by typing \**, to produce  a
      footnote  number1.  The number is automatically incremented
      after every footnote.  For example, the input:







____________________
   1Like this.


There are other differences; the section headings in groff me(7) are set in
bold instead of italics, and similarly with the request names in the text. 
The page offset is different, too.  I don't regard either of these as a
problem.

But the footnote numbering is downright ugly, potentially confusing, and
should be fixed.




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