Re: [Groff] Nesting font macros in man pages

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Ingo,

> things are actually much simpler even for describing such unusually
> complicated syntax:
>
> .Oo : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr : Oc
> .Eo [: Fl c Ar cc-addr Ec :]
>
> .Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns Ar value
> .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Pf = Ar value

This has reminded me of one reason I didn't get on with mdoc.
Only the `Fl' is obviously mdoc's, due to the `.' invocation.  The rest
are a mix of command and data, but without any sigil one's left guessing
unless the command set has been memoised.  It's not helped by the data
typically being small abbreviations for variables and sample parameters
rather than the prose words you might find for running English text,
thus they look like commands.

If, in some made up syntax, it was

    .Fl S .Ar var .Ns .Op .Pf = .Ar value

that might be more grokable, though still long-winded for
`-S var[=value]'.

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy