Re: groff/-mandoc replacement (OT)

[Iain Hibbert <plunky%rya-online.net@localhost>]

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009, der Mouse wrote:

> >>> [...], "what I want" is a blank line, [...]
> >>  .Pp  The `.Pp' paragraph command may be used to specify a line
> >>       space where necessary.  [...]
> > Be warned that nroff may decide to squeeze out multiple blank lines,
> > so a whole file full of Pp ends up being a singleton.

I think that putting multiple Pp macros in sequence they won't make any
difference "by design" - the macro language is tagging semantic structures
so that I can interpret it how *I* want it because that happens on my
computer not yours. All you say with Pp is that "this is not the same
block of text as the previous line, separate them" and if I want that to
mean my manual-page-to-voice-converter** should pause and clear its throat
then that is my perogative. Multiple separators in a row don't make any
sense to me.

> > .br is the appropriate troff/evil request, but nroff may still decide
> > against honouring it.  --kk
>
> .br wasn't enough in my tests.  The incantation I eventually settled
> on, which seems to work for me, is
>
> .de bL
> .nf
> \&\ \&
> .br
> .fi
> ..
>
> (which defines .bL for the purpose).  Some one of these years I should
> learn enough roff to go read the mdoc source myself....

what does this do for you that .Pp doesn't?

iain

(** Ahem. No, I don't have such a program but I bet it exists :)