[bug #53043] [PATCH] an-old.tmac: Check the number of arguments for some macros

[Ingo Schwarze]

Follow-up Comment #4, bug #53043 (project groff):

Branden:  
What you say is fair enough, but it doesn't apply to the question at hand. 
Using .BR with a single argument is valid syntax and has well-defined and
obvious semantics.  As a matter of fact, an example of a document making valid
use of the feature is the groff(7) manual page itself.

No program should warn about usage that is valid and unambiguous.  Issuing
invalid warnings is not a good idea.  It is not the job of the end user to
pick out valid warnings from among invalid ones.

Even for warnings, *sometimes*, less is more.  This is such a case.  If you
issue too many warnings, and in particular bogus ones, people will simply
switch them off completely.  Providing the possibility to fine-tune warnings
to end-users is nice in theory, but i have almost never met any user who
actually does such fine-tuning in practice, it's simply too much work for
end-users who usually want to focus on other things, not on tuning of warning
levels.  So program maintainers better get warnings right in the first place. 
That's in the best interest of end-users.


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