Re: [Groff] on \$0

[Werner LEMBERG]

> BTW, if you run this with `groff -m trace' you will an unjustified
> error message

trace.tmac won't work if `de' itself is modified.

> Another reason is of aesthetical nature.  I want to avoid ugly
> structures like `\\*[namespace]:s' or
> `groff:package:container:macro:s'.  Using `\$0:s' is tolerable,
> while longer expressions make programming a torture and tend to hide
> errors.
> 
> So if there is a method to enable \$0 this would be a giant step
> towards safe local name spaces.  The problems from overriding local
> names in subsequent macro calls leads to serious bugs that are often
> hard to be detected.  I wasted a lot of time on tracking such
> unnecessary bugs.

It seems to me that a much better and cleaner solution would be to
introduce support for local variables.  It should be straightforward
to implement this (but not yet).


    Werner