Re: [9fans] troff documentation link broken

[arnold@skeeve.com]

Carsten Kunze <carsten.kunze@arcor.de> wrote:

> The whole paragraph does not make sense if .ul is used.  Why defining .us
> and not using it.  This is a typo.  troff doesn't underline by itself.
> One way is to write a custom macro (as .us) or use ms macro's .UL.
> .ul only underlines in nroff.

Please remember that the document applies to both nroff and troff.
For nroff (terminals, printers), .ul does underlining. For typesetters
(includes laser printers) troff .ul does italics. The .us macro shows
how to get real underlining on a typesetter device.

Evolution plays a part here. The original formatter was nroff for
printers and teletypes. Troff came along later, at which point .ul
was already in use in people's documents and/or macro packages.

HTH,

Arnold