Re: [Groff] ASCII Minus Sign in man Pages

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Branden,

> A quick experiment with -Z shows me that groff does still today load
> the S [special] font when the \(pl and \(mi character escapes are
> used.

Yes, my list email from earlier today lists the PostScript glyphs:
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2017-05/msg00028.html

> It's not a no-op on a PostScript device, but I note no _visual_
> difference.

That's odd.  It's a noticeable difference here, even sticking with the
default Roman.  Also, + and \(pl vary similarly.

    $ cat minus.tr
    .ds b \(rs
    .ds m \N'45'
    \*m -. \*bN'45' \N'45'. \*b\*m \-. \*b(mi \(mi. + +. \*b(pl \(pl.
    $ groff minus.tr >minus.ps
    $ gs -q -r600 -sDEVICE=pnmraw -sOutputFile=- \
    >     -dTextAlphaBits=4 - <minus.ps |
    > pnmcrop -quiet |
    > pnmmargin -white 10 |
    > pnmtopng -quiet -compression 9 >minus.png
    $

Visible at https://s29.postimg.org/ddwg1okz9/minus.png

The PostScript is using Symbol for \(mi and \(pl.

    /F0 10/address@hidden SF
        2.5 (--)72 12 S
        2.5(.\\)-2.5 G
        (N'45' -.  \\- \255.  \\\(mi)-2.5 E
    /F1 10/Symbol SF
        (-)2.5 E
    F0
        2.5(.++)C
        2.5(.\\)-2.5 G
        (\(pl)-2.5 E
    F1
        (+)2.5 E
    F0
        (.)A 0

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.
https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy