Re: [Groff] man pages for macro packages

[Werner LEMBERG]

> > Well, the names `man', `ms', `mm' make sense: `manual',
> > `manuscript', `memo'.  I think they have been deliberately chosen
> > to coincide with the -m command line option.  So the leading `m'
> > doesn't stand for `macro' at all.
> 
> I must disagree with your conclusion.  The nroff man page (HP-UX
> 10.0), which is derived from the original AT&T page documents the -m
> option as follows:
> 
> -m<name>  Precede the input files with the non-compiled (ASCII text)
>           macro file /usr/lib/nls/LANG/tmac/tmac.name
> 
> I would suggest that the <name> has been selected to eliminate the
> confusion that would come from typing -mman or -mmm or -mms rather
> than -m not referring to 'macro' at all.  Elan's Eroff manual uses a
> very similar description for the -m option in their nroff(1) and
> troff(1) man pages.

Sorry for being imprecise.  I mean that the leading `m' for *these
three macro packages* doesn't stand for `macro'.  As mentioned, this
is a nice (and wanted) coincidence with the -m command line argument.


    Werner