Re: [Groff] Question on string registers and requests

[brian m. carlson]

On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 01:38:41PM -0700, andlabs wrote:
> 
> Hello. I noticed, that given
> 
> .ds U \\s-2UNIX\\s0
> 
> in a troff file after -ms, and neither -ms nor that file define a macro .U,
> I could do
> 
> .U
> 
> and it would be replaced with the contents of that string. Is that a feature
> of groff? I'd like to clear things up. Thanks.

Yes, this is a documented behavior.  Strings, macros, diversions, and
requests are all in the same namespace, and strings, macros, and
diversions can all be printed as one another.  Requests, for the obvious
reasons, cannot be printed and will cause a diagnostic message if you
attempt to do so.

For more information, see the "Strings" section of the groff info pages.

-- 
brian m. carlson / brian with sandals: Houston, Texas, US
+1 713 440 7475 | http://crustytoothpaste.ath.cx/~bmc | My opinion only
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