Re: [Groff] condition: OR of two string comparisons

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Carsten,

> (It was unfair to put the .ds after .if !\w and .if d ... :-)

I didn't write it;  it's real code from groff's distributed macros.  :-)

> >     Whitespace aids grokking expressions.
>
> Are whitespace not already allowed in groff?

Only if the whole expression is surrounded by parenthesis.

> > How would it `x' work for .ds rather than .nr?
>
> x would mean "extended numerical expression".  .ds doesn't accept
> numerical expressions.

I'm interested in better expressions, string and numeric.  It's poor
string expressions that got us into this via 'c'a'b'c'd'e'.

> > I guess it, especially a preprocessor, conceivably doesn't have to
> > use `.' as its escape character, though I think that would be a
> > mistake.  Unicode opens up other possibilities;  `·if'.
>
> Would it be a good idea to require nonascii as input encoding for
> general requests?

No, I don't think so, as I said, "a mistake".  But I'm putting forward
options, especially for a preprocessor, even if I don't like them.  :-)

> The key to new users are the macro packages.  If they are comfortable
> there can't be any arguments against the troff language.

I don't see how one follows from the other.  The macro package may be
superbly powerful, easy and clear to use.  It doesn't mean the
underlying language doesn't have problems.  (Fortran 77 was used to
write a lot of good programs.)  We need new users that won't shy away
from troff on seeing beyond some macros.

Cheers, Ralph.