Re: [Groff] space width

[Dave Kemper]

>> I think it's [.tfk] a poorly implemented request.
>
> Well, it's a cheap implementation.

Yes, that's a better way to put it. (-:

>> Since the documentation states one of the problems -- "the track
>> kerning amount is added even to the rightmost glyph in a line" -- I
>> suppose this can't technically be called a bug, but there would seem
>> to be almost no situations where this would be desired behavior.
>
> The only real solution is to completely redesign the layout engine,
> switching to a TeX-like paragraph handling algorithm.

I admit to not knowing the internals of the formatting algorithm, but
I don't see why solving this problem requires the algorithm to change.
To solve it, internally groff could just do what it currently advises the
user to do: pretend the line is longer by the amount of padding being
added to each glyph.  (groff already knows this amount; to the user,
it's not obvious, as the amount is calculated based on parameters the
user supplies.)

Granted, the issue is somewhat academic, as revamping the formatting
algorithm is already considered a higher priority than tweaking .tkf,
and there's no one available to do either one.