Re: [Groff] First round of cleabnup patches

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > > All new macros defined in these changes have two-character names,
> >
> > Hmm.  Not quite correct -- see .URL and .MTO.
>
> Those aren't new, they're transplanted from www.tmac.

Ah yes, I misunderstood the word `new' in your answer.

> > As written in another mail, it's fine for to use the .UR/.UE pair,
> > dropping .MTO since it can be expressed with .UR.  Objections?
>
> None from me.  doclifter already lifts .UR/.UE; I found them on some
> version of the man macro page I can't now lay hands on.

OK.

> > > I have not embedded an inclusion of an-ext.tmac in an-old.tmac
> > > because the file contains some policy -- see the font remappings
> > > near the front.
> >
> > Where's the problem?
>
> These bits:
>
> .if n \{\
> .  ftr CR R
> .  ftr CI I
> .  ftr CB B
> .\}
> .
> .if '\(.T'dvi' \{\
> .  ftr CB CW
> .\}
> .

My fault, wrong question.  Another try: What's the problem?  The
current code I have is this:

  .if n \{\
  .  do ftr CR R
  .  do ftr CI I
  .  do ftr CB B
  .\}
  .
  .if '\(.T'dvi' \
  .  do ftr CB CW

groff's two-letter `do' instruction nicely hides extended groff
requests...

> > For this reason, I prefer (1) for both .EX/.EE and .DS/.DE --
> > since there aren't any other paired `environments' in man except
> > .RS/.RE, we would even have a consistent interface if we refrained
> > from having an optional parameter for indentation.
>
> OK.

Good to know.

> > Actually, *all* macros added to an-ext.tmac have to be documented.
> > Since macros in an-ext overwrite any platform-specific versions of
> > .EX/.EE we don't have to bother with different implementations.
>
> I'm now a bit puzzled about why an-old and an-ext have separate
> existences at all.  If we're going to dicument the an-ext things and
> treat them as first-class citizens, why have two files?

The idea was to have a set of macros (written in pure classical troff)
which is (a) in the public domain, (b) which runs with all troff
incarnations, and (c) which man writers might use as a template for
copying the relevant snippets to the man page's preamble.

I thought we've agreed on that.


    Werner