[bug #58736] [me] footnote breaks two-column output

[G. Branden Robinson]

Update of bug #58736 (project groff):

                  Status:             In Progress => Need Info              

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Follow-up Comment #22:

Returning to the original report now having learned a little about how me(7)
works, I think the problem arises from a gap in the macro package's design.

It is designed to output footnotes in multi-column mode at the bottom of the
_column_, not the page.

But what to do when the document returns to single-column mode with a footnote
pending?

The semantic gap is easier to imagine if we consider the hypothetical of a
multi-column document formatting output in a column other the first, with a
footnote pending for that column, when the input declares `1c`.  What should
happen?  Should the footnote be emitted mid-page under the relevant column?

One simple possibility would be for `1c` to force a page break if any
footnotes are pending.  I believe this can be checked by testing for the
existence if the `|f` diversion.  (Maybe not portably, though--`.if d` is a
groffism.)

Also, when a trap is set in multi-column mode for placement of the footnote,
that trap is not cleared after the footnote is rendered.  The result is that
the bottoms of your columns creep up the page as you go from left to right. 
An example of this can be seen in bug #61675.

I am soliciting opinions as to what `1c` should mean when footnotes are
pending--force a page break, or try to do something more complicated?



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