bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #63428, [me] want registers to set initial...

 
 

bug #63428: [me] want registers to set initial line length, page length, page offset

Submitter:  G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Submitted:  Sat 26 Nov 2022 07:24:55 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Macro me Severity:  1 - Wish
Item Group:  Feature change Status:  None
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  None
Open/Closed:  Open Planned Release:  None
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Sun 27 Nov 2022 10:30:25 AM UTC, comment #1: 

original submission:

> Right now it is only possible to set these before the
> package initializes by futzing with device description and/or
> device macro files.  Practically no one will do that.


...or by using .mso within the document, rather than -m on the command line, to load the macro package.  Then the user can call any number of requests before the package initializes.  This is more attainable to Joe Average User than the schemes above.

This is in no way opposition to your proposal, just an observation about what the status quo offers.

(And frankly, I think it's good practice for the document author to always use .mso to select a macro package: the author knows what macro package(s) the document requires, whereas the person groffing it might not, and would have to look at the source to figure it out (hopefully commented prominently at the top), or hope grog can correctly guess.  As a general rule, command-line options should control things that a user might want to configure per run.  Macro package dependencies don't fall into that category; those are intrinsic to the document, so the document should handle them.)

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Sat 26 Nov 2022 07:24:55 PM UTC, original submission:  

Right now it is only possible to set these before the package initializes by futzing with device description and/or device macro files.  Practically no one will do that.

DWB mm's approach of having command-line-settable registers for these was not a bad one.

Possible names that don't collide with existing me(7) usage would be:

il: initial line length
ip: initial page length
io: initial page offset

The "initial" here is key; without that qualifier, the user might think that changes to these registers within a document will have instant effect, which is not true.  Requests must be used.  Hence starting the names with "i".

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator

 

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