Re: [Groff] Request "cf"

[Keith Marshall]

On Sunday 16 March 2008 06:03, Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> > I am just a bit sad that though there is a lot of talent and
> > experience around, development is not seen to be a priority
> > anywhere.  But we have been at this topic a year or so ago, so I
> > just shut up.
>
> Development is always a matter of time.  As you can see, I'm the only
> one basically who does some coding.  And sadly, I can't afford much
> time for groff these days.

If I might add my 2p here: probably the most significant driving force 
behind the development of free software is a user, identifying a need 
which he can't easily satisfy with currently available tools; to 
address this, he gets stuck in to develop the necessary features for 
himself, then contributes the result to the community.

> However, even in case I had plenty of time, I don't see the immediate
> usefulness of such a facility.  My three-part solution is quite
> natural IMHO, and not a bad hack from the user's perspective: You
> define the preamble and the postamble, and then you load the image.
> Honestly, I really don't understand your complaints.  You have to
> specify the preamble and postamble anyway, haven't you?

Miklos has identified a need; Werner has suggested a technique which 
should address that need, to the satisfaction of the majority of users.  
Miklos believes that this represents an opportunity for development of 
a feature which could better address his need.  He alone seems to be 
calling for such development; I see no reason why anyone, other than 
he, should expend effort on development of such a feature.  This is 
simply the nature of free or open source software development.

Regards,
Keith.