Re: macOS Terminal man page URL format

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi John,

At 2023-02-06T18:53:10+1100, John Gardner wrote:
> So the exact URL format *does* need to be configurable,

Please review, apply, and test the attached patch.

> preferably with a separate string for apropos(1) links, if supported
> (which would logically default to the `an*MR-scheme` string, or
> whatever we decide to name it.

apropos(1) is not in groff's department.  If you want hyperlinked
apropos output (a good idea, by the way), man-db author and maintainer
Colin Watson is the person to talk to.

That said, I have proposed lightening his plate (except for what he'll
have to retain for portability, which is probably "everything") by
suggesting that groff's man(7) and mdoc(7) could be run in a mode such
that they would produce the "apropos line" themselves.  In man-db, a
tool called "lexgrog(1)" has to do that, and it is fundamentally limited
by not being a 900-lb. full implementation of a *roff interpreter.
(Nevertheless it does an excellent job on well-behaved input.)

It baffles me that this hasn't been done before.  Nothing but *roff
should be trying to interpret *roff, but people kept trying...

It _should_ be easy.  Test one string or register, and if it's true,
divert the output, then wait to hit a `SH` call with an argument of
"NAME" or "Name", end the diversion, format normally, then when you hit
`SH` again, invoke `nx` to skip to the next input file.

(N.B., the diversion is never emitted.  It is thrown away, just as Doug
McIlroy indirectly taught me with "divert(-1)" in m4.)

Maybe for some reason this _isn't_ easy and I'll be laughing out the
other side of my face.  But its _seems_ plausible...

And of course the same could and should be done for mdoc(7), which
already performs tests its `SH` arguments far more than man(7) ever
dreamed of doing.

Regards,
Branden

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