Re: [Groff] What does .\" NS mean in the unstripped tmac files?

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi,

oops, just noticed when looking at John's initial message:

John Gardner wrote on Sat, Feb 25, 2017 at 07:38:52PM +1100:

> I'm digging through Groff's source, and I found this puzzling acronym
> littered throughout tmac/doc-common-u:

> .\" NS Dd user macro (not parsed, not callable)
> .\" NS   set document date
> .\" NS
> .\" NS modifies:
> .\" NS   doc-date-string
> .\" NS   doc-command-name
> .\" NS
> .\" NS local variables:
> .\" NS   doc-date-XXX
> .\" NS
> .\" NS width register `Dd' set above

That looks like cargo cult programming.

Only the first and the last of these lines should have the "namespace"
marker, and the last line in addition violates syntax and should look
more like this:

  .\" NS Dd register - width needed for the document date (set above)

But maybe it's not very important, quite possible nobody ever used
the namespace checking feature after Cynthia left...

Yours,
  Ingo