groff/mandoc rendering difference with Lk

groff/mandoc rendering difference with Lk

[Anthony J. Bentley]

Hi,

.Sh SEE ALSO
.Lk http://example.com/ The example homepage .

This fragment renders as so in mandoc:

SEE ALSO
     The example homepage: http://example.com/.

But it renders like this in groff:

SEE ALSO
     The: http://example.com/ example homepage.

Unless this is a recent behavior change in groff (and thus a bug),
mandoc should probably match the rendering so that mandoc users
don't forget to quote the arguments.

-- 
Anthony J. Bentley
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Re: groff/mandoc rendering difference with Lk

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi Anthony,

Anthony J. Bentley wrote on Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 01:55:54AM -0700:

> .Sh SEE ALSO
> .Lk http://example.com/ The example homepage .
> 
> This fragment renders as so in mandoc:
> 
> SEE ALSO
>      The example homepage: http://example.com/.
> 
> But it renders like this in groff:
> 
> SEE ALSO
>      The: http://example.com/ example homepage.
> 
> Unless this is a recent behavior change in groff (and thus a bug),

As far as i know, the .Lk macro is a groff addition.
Heirloom, for example, doesn't have it.

Similar macros taking free text arguments - An Cd Fd Mt Sx -
all accept an unlimited number of arguments, so .Lk should, too.
Only a few macros taking very special syntax elements as arguments
- Lb In St - limit their number of arguments in this way.

The odd behaviour of .Lk does not improve usability.
No one in their right mind would put the text following a macro
on the same line.  Even if it works and the macro stops processing
arguments after a fixed number of arguments, it is much clearer
to put following text on the next line.

> mandoc should probably match the rendering so that mandoc users
> don't forget to quote the arguments.

This is one of the cases where i considered the behaviour of groff
so insane that i consciously chose to not follow.  I think groff
should be fixed, i just didn't come round to do it.

Yours,
  Ingo
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