Re: [Groff] extended font macro

[Larry Kollar]

Werner LEMBERG wrote:

>>>> .FONT I text1 R text2 I text3 R text4
>>>> is equivalent to .IR text1 text2 text3 text4
>>> 
>>> I don't particularly like the idea; changing the font for
>>> individual strings is very low level manipulation.  Groff does have
>>> established syntax for that....
> 
> I disagree.  Bernd is aiming at improving the man syntax, moving away
> from low-level groff.  Basically, this is a good idea.

I'm with Werner here. But if this is something that gets used often,
perhaps it should be given a more structural name. Use FONT as
a mid-level formatting macro that might be used underneath for
several high-level, structural formats. For example:

.de FILE
.FONT CB \\$1 R \&. CI \\$2
..
.FILE name ext

> A generic .FT command added to man would be very useful, and scripts
> which parse man pages could be easily adjusted.  Alas, I think that
> the disadvantages outweigh the benefits.

Yes, the humble manpage format has escaped the confines of *roff…
so any extensions have to be considered carefully.

-- Larry