Re: [Groff] soelim outdated

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > > I sometimes need the ability to include extra bits of text
> > > (which may not be macros) which lie on personal directories
> > > etc. I generally do it with the -M option, and with .mso it
> > > works quite well (*except* for soelim).
> > 
> > Again, I think this is an abuse of .mso, and a GROFF_INPUT_PATH
> > feature should be introduced.
> 
> I'm not sure I understand why it is an abuse (included stuff may
> well be macros after all).

It is an abuse IMHO to use the groff/tmac directory for storing
private files.

> The .mso line in the groff manpage says:
>        .mso file
>               The same as the so  request  except  that  file  is
>               searched  for  in  the  same  way that tmac.name is
>               searched for when the -mname option is specified.
> 
> so perhaps soelim should know about it, should'nt it?

Hmm.  Maybe you are right that some day people write a standard macro
package <foo> which has to be preprocessed with, say, tbl.
Nevertheless, I think it would be better then to store both a
tmac.<foo>-raw file and a preprocessed tmac.<foo>.  How should a user
know that a given macro package has to always be used with a certain
preprocessor?

> IMHO dealing with an environment variable is not the same as dealing
> with a command line option (-M vs. GROFF_INPUT_PATH).

I agree.  So soelim should be handle to read .so files from
GROFF_INPUT_PATH, .mso files from GROFF_TMAC_PATH, and to expand \V
escapes.


    Werner