[bug #58958] undocumented (or just broken) inability of .char to map to \:

[Dave]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?58958>

                 Summary: undocumented (or just broken) inability of .char to
map to \:
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: barx
            Submitted on: Fri 14 Aug 2020 10:26:07 PM CDT
                Category: Core
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Documentation
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

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Details:

(First mentioned as a side note in bug #58930, this problem is unrelated to
that feature request and warrants its own report.)

.char \[u200B] \:

doesn't work.  .char being unable to map something to an escape, or at least
to this particular escape, is a bug either in the implementation, or in the
lack of documentation of the restriction.

Branden wrote the following in a follow-up comment:

It looks like the transform is just not happening:


.pl 1v
.char \[u200B] \:
.ds a \[u200B]
.length i \*a
\ni
8

.pl 1v
.ds a \[u200B]
.length i \*a
\ni
8

.pl 1v
.char a b
.ds a a
\*a
b


That unchanged length of 8, the exact character count of "\[u2000B]" is highly
suspicious to me.




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