bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #60512, [ms] offer tips for diffing...

 
 

bug #60512: [ms] offer tips for diffing document revisions

Submitter:  G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Submitted:  Mon 03 May 2021 04:47:42 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Macro ms Severity:  1 - Wish
Item Group:  Documentation Status:  None
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  gbranden
Open/Closed:  Open Planned Release:  None
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Thu 10 Aug 2023 01:57:56 PM UTC, comment #4: 

Re-conceiving as a documentation issue, per Bjarni's suggestion in comment #2.

Dave also recently filed an ms ticket about managing display distance in footnotes, so we have at least 2 topics for an ms writer's FAQ, or a new section for our "ms.ms" document.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Fri 13 Aug 2021 02:42:14 PM UTC, comment #3: 

Thanks, Bjarni.  That's a good idea and should suit my needs for the time being.  Postponing ticket.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Wed 11 Aug 2021 03:11:50 AM UTC, comment #2: 

  Using a "help file" containing requests to change default settings is
a possible solution.

  For example containing

.ad l
.ds AD l
.hy 0
.nr HY 0

  This file is then simple used as an input file before the usual one.

  This tip could be added to the PROBLEMS files or be a part of a
"debugging" chapter somewhere.

Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>
Sat 08 May 2021 08:51:08 PM UTC, comment #1: 

original submission:

> Now that ms is working more nicely in nroff mode, it's getting
> more annoying to diff changes to the output when adjusting to
> both margins as is the default, because as soon as a change
> alters the output line count by an odd number, lines get
> adjusted from the opposite side, creating spurious differences.


There are likely other good reasons to update ms as described, but doesn't "diff -b" solve the above problem?  Or does that hide other differences that you do want flagged?

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Mon 03 May 2021 04:47:42 PM UTC, original submission:  

Now that ms is working more nicely in nroff mode, it's getting more annoying to diff changes to the output when adjusting to both margins as is the default, because as soon as a change alters the output line count by an odd number, lines get adjusted from the opposite side, creating spurious differences.

I'd like to be able to say "-dAD=l" when generating an ms document.

This is similar to a recent change I made to our man macros (commit e7094b20, 22 August 2020).  (mdoc also now "supports" the AD string by explicitly recognizing but ignoring it [to keep the string name from being used for some other purpose, and to preserve macro package agnosticism in the man page interface], since it always uses adjustment mode "l".)
 
I reckon such a feature would also be welcomed by those who dislike adjustment to both margins in general.

Any given document could, of course, still force the adjustment to any mode it pleases, though setting \*[AD] would become the preferred way to do this.  (I'm thinking ms will need to intercept the .ad request anyway to make ".ad" with no argument do ".ad \*[AD]" instead.)


G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator

 

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    Follow 6 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2023-08-10 gbranden Summary[ms] document tips for diffing document revisions [ms] offer tips for diffing document revisions
    2023-08-10 gbranden Item GroupFeature change Documentation
        StatusPostponed None
        Summary[ms] want AD string to control default adjustment mode [ms] document tips for diffing document revisions
    2021-08-13 gbranden StatusNone Postponed
    2021-05-03 gbranden Summary[ms]: want AD string to control default adjustment mode [ms] want AD string to control default adjustment mode

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