Re: groff/-mandoc replacement (OT)

[Alan Barrett <apb%cequrux.com@localhost>]

On Tue, 17 Mar 2009, der Mouse wrote:
> The flags recognized are:
> .Bl -tag -width indent
> .It Fl one
> Flag description one.
> .It Fl two
> Flag description two.
> .El
> Of these, half don't work.
> 
> When I nroff -mdoc this, there is no blank line between the "Flag
> description two" and "Of these, half don't work" lines, though there is
> between "The flags recognized are:" and "Flag description one".

I think that's a bug in the mdoc implementation; it should be fixed to
have blank lines both above and below the list (or perhaps neither above
nor below, in the case of a list with the -compact option).

> If I insert a .Pp, I get a blank line (but that means inserting a
> paragraph break in the middle of a paragraph).

I can see other uses for .bL, but in this particular case, I think .Pp
would be better.  With .Pp, you get correct output at the expense of
conceptually incorrect input, but the output remains correct even if the
bug in the .Bl implementation is fixed.  Using .bL here, you get correct
output now (also at the expense of conceptually incorrect input), but if
the bug in the .Bl implementation is fixed, then the output will become
incorrect (it will have two blank lines).

--apb (Alan Barrett)