Re: [PATCH] gropdf: Fix papersize control command

[Deri]

On Saturday, 5 August 2023 11:12:07 BST Alexis wrote:
> In brief: The \X'papersize=paper-format' control command seems to
> read the paper-format parameter as width,length as opposed to the
> gropdf -p option and the referenced documentation (groff_font(5))
> which specifies length,width for the paper-format argument.

The \X'papersize=' command was first implemented in groff's DVI driver 
(grodvi) where it is defined as:-

==============================================================================

By design, the DVI format doesn’t care about the physical dimensions of the 
output medium. Instead, grodvi emits the equivalent to TEX’s 
\special{papersize=width,length} on the first page; dvips (or another DVI 
driver) then sets the page size accordingly. If either the page width or 
length is not positive, no papersize special is output.

A device control escape sequence \X'anything' is translated to the same DVI 
file instructions as would be produced by \special{anything} in TEX; anything 
cannot contain a newline.

==============================================================================

So I followed the same order, since this is an older API and I wanted to allow 
the same source to run on either dvi or pdf [1]. So it is the documentation in 
the gropdf man page which is wrong. I agree it is a little crazy to reverse 
the normal groff ordering but I was retaining compatibility with grodvi. I 
will fix the man page, thanks for the report.

Cheers 

Deri

[1] I have subsequently discovered that TeX uses "in" and "cm" as units rather 
than groff's "i" and "c" so the new gropdf will allow either for the papersize 
command.