[bug #61671] [me] troff throws warning if `2c` macro's 1st argument explicitly empty

[Dave]

Follow-up Comment #2, bug #61671 (project groff):

Two comments on this.  (I know, comments to closed bug reports don't have a
lot of visibility; I can open a new report for these, but that triggers an
extra level of logging, and these are really just corollaries to the current
bug report/commit.)

First:

[comment #0 original submission:]
> meref.me says nothing about `2c`'s `S` argument having to be non-empty,

True, but it also said (and still says) nothing about it being allowed to be
empty either.  With the cited commit now allowing an empty argument, should
the manual explicitly state that this is legal?  Users of -me who aren't
necessarily familiar with low-level troff might not even know _how_ to specify
an empty argument; there seem to be only a small number of macros where this
is an option, but it might be worth spelling out somewhere.

The second concerns the code itself, which after this commit now reads:

.if \\n(.$>1 \
.       nr $m \\$2                      \" param 2: column quantity
.       if \\n(.$>0 \
.               if !'\\$1'' \
.                       nr $s \\$1n     \" param 1: column separation

The new indentation makes it appear the second "if" is under the first (that
is, that it's only run if the first "if's" condition is true), when they're
actually at the same level (the second is evaluated regardless of what the
first decided).


    _______________________________________________________

Reply to this item at:

  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?61671>

_______________________________________________
Message sent via Savannah
https://savannah.gnu.org/