Re: groff 1.23.0.rc4 on FreeBSD

[G. Branden Robinson]

At 2023-04-16T01:08:01+0200, Bruno Haible wrote:
> G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> > We've documented this one in our PROBLEMS file also.
> > 
> > --snip--
> > * gdiffmk doesn't work on FreeBSD; I get errors from "expr".
> 
> Thanks. I had not looked in the PROBLEMS file (partly because
> I stop reading when I see the word "Ultrix"...).

Yes...the file is not in a helpful order.  I think it started out in
forward chronological order (more recent items toward the bottom), then
someone else realized that reverse chronological order (within each
category) was more useful to the reader.  But no one went and
reorganized the _entire file_ to be in reverse chronological order.

This has actually occurred to me before, but now I have an exogenous
reason to do something about it.[1]

One could also lobby to remove items that are clearly antiques and refer
to no system still supported or deployed.  But in my opinion that's a
different, and harder, problem--one then has to have a lot of knowledge
of various Unices and compilers and their end-of-life/end-of-support/
real-world-extinction dates.  I think it is simpler to just put items in
reverse chronological order of commit and let the reader bail out when
they stop seeing things that strike _them_ as of contemporary interest.

Regards,
Branden

[1] One could be forgiven after reading groff's commit log for thinking
    that I pursue every thought that flits through my head, but it's not
    the case.  My git stash is full of half-baked and abandoned
    notions.

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