"pdf: pdfpic" and "pdf: import" (was: Novel use of .char)

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Deri,

At 2024-12-18T11:10:52+0000, Deri wrote:
> I wrote "pdf: pdfpic" to mimic the behaviour of .PSPIC, render image
> down from current point, not realising (until now!) that "ps: import"
> renders the image up from the current point. This difference in
> behaviour is somewhat masked because the higher level interfaces,
> .PSPIC and .PDFPIC, both render the image downwards.
[...]
> There may be an argument for adding "pdf: pdfpicup" to gropdf to
> render upwards, for this type of situation where the image is intended
> to sit on the baseline.

Personally, I think it would be fine to change "pdf: pdfpic" to draw
upward as "ps: import" does.  It would be a "NEWS" item, of course.

I would expect that many more users employ the `PDFPIC` macro than
resort to writing out a device extension command, and those who do the
latter, I would expect to be more conscientious about reading release
announcements and other documentation since they explore every detail of
groff that interests them for maximum utility.

Could the existing (but undocumented) "pdf: import" be changed in the
same way, to emphasize the equivalence of the features?

https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/src/devices/gropdf/gropdf.pl?h=1.23.0#n1100

Or does it not need to be?  I confess there's enough going on in that
logic that I didn't reason out which direction the rendering goes.

Also, if you'd like me to write a paragraph for gropdf(1) about "pdf:
import", just let me know.  That'll _make_ me reason it out.  😅

Regards,
Branden

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature