Re: [Groff] Fw: problem with pic

[Keith Marshall]

On Thursday 20 March 2008 22:27, Y T wrote:
> I suppose it is going to boil down to a matter of "taste".
> Old AT&T pic treated
>      line from 1,1 then up 1
> exactly the same as
>      line from  1,1 up 1

As I read pic documentation, these *should* behave differently; the 
former should plot two line segments, the latter only one.  If AT&T pic 
produces identical results in both cases, then IMO it doesn't behave as 
documented, so could be considered broken.  However, although I use pic 
quite extensively, I've never used AT&T pic, and I haven't read the 
original AT&T documentation; this assessment is based on Eric Raymond's 
pic tutorial, which is provided in the groff package, but supposedly 
applies to both groff and AT&T pic.

> Groff pic 1.19.3 treats them differently.  I think the AT&T pic
> behavior is more natural/intuitive

You are of course entitled to your own opinion, but I must disagree; to 
me, the inclusion of the `then' keyword implies *two* distinct drawing 
motions.  You expect `line from 1,1 then up 1' to be equivalent to

  move to 1,1; line up 1

so why not use that construct?  It is much more explicitly obvious what 
is intended, and IME being explicit leads to fewer surprises.

> but others may prefer the new groff pic behavior.

I definitely do.

> Maintaining compatibility with the old AT&T pic is another argument
> for restoring the old behavior.

Even if AT&T pic is deemed to be broken?

Regards,
Keith.