Re: [Groff] groff_ms.man

[P. Alejandro Lopez-Valencia]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Werner LEMBERG" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Cc: <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2002 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: [Groff] groff_ms.man


>
> > And as groff ms is based on BSD 4.3 ms minus UCB's thesis mode, and
> > BSD ms is AT&T ms enhanced and without the office and budget code
> > beaurocratic stuff used at Bell Labs...
>
> In case groff ms lacks some features it might be even worth to
> implement them...
>

Like the .CT macro? That could make groff a contender in the thesis writing
market :)

> > > > And... What about a list of the out-of-the-box accents and
> > > > symbols and how to type them? Something like a groff_symbols.7
> > > > man page. (I might be willing to write it myself, notice the use
> > > > of non-commital future tense).
>
> You mean groff_char(7)?

Swear I didn't see that one before...

> > > That should also be added to groff.texinfo -- I think there's a
> > > placeholder section for it, but it hasn't been written yet.
>
> Yes.  groff_char(7) should be translated to texinfo.
>
> sed /s/<your favourite escape>/@/   :-)

Hey I can do that :)

>
> It's a rather useless glyph IMHO.

I haven't seen it used properly in languages other than English and Spanish
(and not very much in last century literature). Moreover, the ellipsis
included in
most font families are too tight to have real typographic value in Spanish.
Three evenly spaced period glyphs fill the need (when needed, not frequent
unless you are a playwright).

> The following should do it perfectly:
>
>   .char \[el] .\|.\|.\&
>
> No need to access glyph 188 of the special font.
>
> If you all agree, I'll add it to troff.rc -- what about using the
> entity name `ell' which is probably more mnemonic?
>

I think that would be appropriate. As well, the other proposal, \[...] could
be a backup macro, in case spacing has to be redefined in the main
definition (depending in the language, e.g., French typographic rules are,
errr, convolvulate).