Re: [groff] [patch] do not strip mdoc macros

[James K. Lowden]

On Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:12:29 +0000
Ralph Corderoy <address@hidden> wrote:

> > It would follow from Bjarni's argument, if accepted, that it is
> > objectively correct (a strong claim!) to install programs in
> > scripting languages on user systems only after first stripping
> > comments from them (or perhaps even only after also running them
> > through a compiler, where available).
> 
> But sed, awk, perl, python, ... lex and parse once into an AST or
> bytecode, removing the recurring cost of comments, etc. that impact
> groff.  So I don't think it's an even comparison.

Of course it's a valid comparison.  Which sed or awk or shell script is
distributed in a stripped/compressed form?  Do they store their AST
somewhere, so as to avoid recompilation?  They do not.  Just as
with groff, every parse starts anew. 

--jkl