Re: [Groff] soelim and file names defined in string registers

[Tadziu Hoffmann]

> I have sometimes (slightly mad idea ... ) considered (at
> least experimentally) re-writing relevant macros such as
> ".PS/.PE", ".TS/.TE", ".EQ/.EN" so that they automatically
> write out what occurs between the start and end to a file,
> run the appropriate "preprocessor" program on the file,
> and read the output back in (on the lines of the work-round
> I described). In this way, the "preprocessor" aspect would
> disappear and in effect 'troff' would process each such
> block of special code as if it had the resource built-in
> to itself (albeit in fact forking an external program to
> do the job).

Might be a useful method in some cases, but unfortunately it
also has a drawback, namely that the "pre"-processor is run
(independently) multiple times and therefore will not remember
stuff from previous begin/end tags.  E.g., you won't be able to
define some abbreviations in one .EQ/.EN pair and reuse them in
another.