Re: [Groff] An environment variable for enabling compatibility mode

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > I guess groff could say that a book author has to do the same thing,
> > i.e. if they know groff 1.16 formats their book OK then they keep 1.16
> > around for their book.
> 
> I hope I'm not misunderstanding anything here, but you seem to
> forget that not all users of groff may in fact be in a position to
> keep a version around. I use the system-wide installation on a
> Solaris machine where I have no sysadmin rights. And even if I could
> manage to install a local copy on my own account then surely this
> cannot be a desirable thing? I am currently writing a PhD thesis
> using groff and the me macro package, and I have many references
> with inserted ().

According to the refer man page, you shouldn't do this but use the
bracket-label command.  Don't do

  .[ (
  foo
  .]) 

(not the trailing space in the `.]' line!) but

  .R1
  bracket_label " (" ") " ", "
  .R2

  .[
  foo
  .]

This gives you the possibility to change the formatting of the pre and
post strings globally.


    Werner