[bug #64043] [ms] mixing formatting requests with macro calls produces different unspecified behavior with groff than with AT&T troff

[G. Branden Robinson]

Follow-up Comment #11, bug #64043 (group groff):

I wasn't too impressed with this report, which attempted to use the Groff
Mission Statement as a bludgeon for the reporter to get his way.


Backward compatibility with existing documents and usage will remain a top
priority, as will avoiding feature-bloat and increased  overheads.


Possibly that aspect of the statement promises or implies too much; over my
years of contributing to _groff_ I've observed and noted changes in Version 7,
DWB, and Heirloom versions of _ms_, _mm_, and _man_ (where applicable -- _mm_
wasn't in Version 7) that all could be cited as models against which "backward
compatibility" could be held as the highest "priority".  (One of those
differences in _ms_ came up in the linked discussion.)

Adding _mandoc_(1) to the mixture, we've observed differences between its
_mdoc_ and that of Net/2 BSD as well.

So what to do when coequally canonical sources are in conflict?

You make a decision and document things.


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