Re: [Groff] Divert into string variable

[Carsten Kunze]

Dave Kemper <address@hidden> wrote:

> It's documented in the groff manual in section 5.19; see the sentence
> "Strings, macros, and diversions (and boxes) share the same name
> space" and the following few paragraphs.

That doesn't describe it.  But indeed the following sentences (of the groff 
manual) do.

But it is not described in the troff manual.  Rather the opposite is described 
in § 7.1:
"Macros are interpolated with .xx [...] Strings are interpolated with \*x and 
\*(xx".

So it is specified for groff, but other troff implementations could behave 
different even if they are according the troff manual.

Sharing the same name space is only a matter of the symbol table handling.  
E.g. in C char and char * share the same name space but you cannot save all 
information of a char * in a char in any case.  It would be legal if strings 
and macros share the same name space but troff would give a type mismatch 
warning if one uses \*... for a macro or .xx for a string (IMHO even according 
the troff manual(?)).  That number registers have an own name space is 
something special to troff which can't be found in most other important 
languages.

Carsten