Re: [Groff] Nesting font macros in man pages

[G. Branden Robinson]

At 2017-04-30T19:34:20-0400, James K. Lowden wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Apr 2017 01:15:05 -0400
> "G. Branden Robinson" <address@hidden> wrote:
> > C adopted designated initializers, a sop to those who can't recall
> > what order a struct's fields come in. 
> 
> I guess you're implying that designated initializers, while verbose,
> are easier to use, even for aficionados of a terse language like C.
> As it happens, my current work is in C, and I adopted C11 as a
> baseline, partly so I could use them.  
> 
> With today's machines, the compiler can do more than was feasible in
> 1978.  I'd argue we have bigger structures now, too.  Designated
> initializers aren't so much a sop to the lazy as they are a gift of
> clarity, because otherwise the programmer has to count structure
> elements and supply any zeros preceding the elements to be
> initialized.  Designated initializers also support re-initialization of
> existing structures, something that otherwise required error-prone
> member-by-member assignment.  
> 
> All to say that at least one fan of short macro names finds explicit
> structure initialization useful.  

Lest I be misunderstood, even on a side point, and to assuage fears in
the event I start submitting patches to, say, libgroff, I'm a big fan of
designated initializers.

I was indulging myself in a bit of snark; alas, the price I pay for that
is being sometimes misunderstood.  :-O

Regards,
Branden

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