Re: [Groff] pic: No white space allowed between . and PS?

[Carsten Kunze]

Tadziu Hoffmann <address@hidden> wrote:

> Pic(1) says:
> 
>   Each picture starts with a line beginning with .PS and
>   ends with a line beginning with .PE.  Anything outside
>   of .PS and .PE is passed through without change.

Yes.  But generally it can be expected that spaces between . and a macro name 
doesn't matter.

> There's no mention of spaces between the dot and PS/PE being
> allowed.

This may be mentioned elsewhere for requests and macros in general.

>  The troff code which reads and interprets lines is
> entirely different from the pic code that scans for .PS and
> .PE, so there is no reason to assume they behave the same.

I disagree with the last part of the sentence.  For you as an expert the above 
is true.  For the non-expert user the opposite may be true--there is no reason 
that they *do not* behave the same.

> That gtroff allows those spaces is an extension to the original
> troff spec, and in gpic it was simply not implemented to date.

Maybe I get you wrong, but spaces between . and macronames are possible in any 
*roff.  (I don't know if it is written in the spec...)

If someone says that for traditional reasons it *must not* be implemented--ok.  
But else--I think for consistency it could be allowd some day to insert spaces 
here.

Carsten