[Groff] Re: groff .cc page trap issue

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > Hmm, I could change the .de1 request (and friends) to reset both
> > the escape and control characters to the default while executing
> > the defined macro.  What do you think?
> 
> Adding this to .de1 may break things.

I don't think so.  de1 is a recent extension of groff (introduced in
1.17.1)

> The issue of the escape and control characters in traps is not
> related to compatibility mode; don't mix them together.

In this particular case I disagree.  Consider de1 as a request where
`everything is normal' -- similar to .char which also resets the
escape character to `\'.

> When a trap occurs, a macro executes.  The commands in that macro
> have no way of knowing what the current control character might be
> when the trap triggers.  You can't have ".ecs" or ".cc ." at the
> start of the macro; because, "." might not be the control character.
> We need some escape sequence that *always* works as the control
> character and that is not affected by users playing with ".cc @".
> 
>
> My suggestion is to use another escape sequence that *always* works
> as the control character, even after the control character is
> redefined using ".cc @".  At Waterloo, we added \. to the escape
> set:
>
> [...]
> 
> Would this work?  To work well, we also need to be able to
> save/restore the secondary control char (') and the escape
> character.

It would work, but I dislike it.  Extending de1 is much easier, both
on the programming and user side, and would do everything you want.


    Werner