Re: [Groff] Status of the portability work, and plans for the future

[Eric S. Raymond]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden>:
> > Then I don't know what the right thing is here.  I agree with your
> > design intention, but I can't see how to implement it robustly.
> 
> Well, doclifter ignores it anyway, doesn't it?

Yes, but doclifter isn't the problem here, either.
 
> > Even querying and storing the current state of adjustment in .SY to
> > be restored in .YS is likely to lead to subtle bugs, as I expect
> > many writing several .SY invocations in a row are likely to forget
> > to close any but the last one.
> 
> This can be handled quite easily.  Considering
> 
>   .SY
>   .SY
>   .YS
> 
> it's just necessary to test a flag, say, \n(sy, which is set by the
> first .SY call.  If it's still set in the next call to .SY, don't call
> the .ad request.

OK.  Can I rely on you to add that?

> > The people who wrote the troff macros in the existing pages.
> 
> Well, the macros just work.  Portability issues simply haven't been
> considered.

Yes...I know :-).
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>