Re: [Groff] surprise, surprise

[Clarke Echols]

Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> 
> >     .de xx
> >     hello world!
> >     ..
> >     abc
> >     \fB.xx\fP
> >     def
> >
> > Quick answer: `abc' in plain, `hello world! def' in bold.  Note,
> > `def' is in bold too!
> 
> This is not only bizarre, this is pathologic :-)  Again, may I ask to
> test this with AT&T troff?
> 
>     Werner

I may have my AT&T manuals buried around here somewhere, but I don't
have time to look for them right now.  However, I will argue that if
the dot is not the first character in the line, before ANY other
character, it should not be interpreted as a control device.  If you
want to print the contents of macro "xx" in bold you should use
something similar to

.de xx
Hello world!
..
abc \fB
.xx
\fP

to get:

abc Hello World

If you want to suppress whitespace after the \fB, you should use in
line 4:

abc \fB\c
.xx

etc.

But anytime the line

\fB.xx\fP

appears anywhere, it should ALWAYS print ".xx" in bold -- no exceptions.
I am not aware of any AT&T manual that allows an exception.

>From the Eroff manual (Eroff 3.0), chapter 4 page 2:

  "Control lines BEGIN with a control character, normally a period (".")
  or an acute accent ("'"), followed by a 1- or 2-character command
  name, collectively called a _request_." (emphasis mine)

I find no text indicating that there are any exceptions to that rule.

Clarke