Re: file variables and man pages with preprocessors

[Werner LEMBERG]

>     It seems a little ugly to shoe-horn yet another special case in,
>     when local variables can just go at the end of the file.
> 
> It is a lot more convenient to use -*- -*- for something simple.

Well, preconv acts as a filter -- as do (almost) all components in
groff -- thus reading something from the `end of a file' (a) needs a
temporary buffer since the input data stream is `stdin' in most cases
and (b) isn't implemented in preconv due to (a).

Additionally, I'm not aware of any other special case except this one;
man pages act this way since at least 20 years AFAIK.


    Werner