Re: [Groff] strings with arguments

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > PS: It is *not* possible to make macros with arguments be called
> >     inline.  The complications caused by newlines are too hairy.
>
> Now I can see the difficulties.  I had in mind some kind of Pascal
> `function', while a groff macro is like a Pascal `procedure'.
> This seems to be impossible at the moment.  Consequently, OOP is out
> of reach.  So I won't bother you with this before the next release.

After some experimenting I'm now convinced that inline expansion of
macros can't suppress the final newline in general.

At home I've added some lines of code (less than 20 lines) which
successfully suppresses the last newline of a macro so that e.g. the
following works:

  .de xxx
  foo\\$1
  ..
  aaa\*[xxx bar]aaa

    => aaafoobaraaa

Now consider this:

  .de xxx
  .  ie n \
  .    nop n\\$1
  .  el \
  .    nop t\\$1
  aaa\*[xxx bar]aaa

If in troff mode, the result is

  aaatbaraaa

but in nroff mode we get

  aaanbar aaa

since only the final newline is suppressed.  I could manage to always
suppress newlines, e.g.

  .de xxx
  Hallo
  \\$1
  ..
  aaa\*[xxx John]aaa

    => aaaHalloJohnaaa

but I think this is a bad idea.  The only clean solution to this
problem would be to introduce a new variant of the `de' request to
define inline macros.


    Werner