Re: Some comments on the documentation (here: groff manual)

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Oliver,

At 2023-05-28T11:34:27+0200, Oliver Corff wrote:
> as I am trying to learn more of the groff language, not so much for
> modifying existing layouts or creating layout macros, but rather for
> the purpose of computing contents like character tables etc., I came
> across two issues in the groff manual (at least in the version which
> is currently available as:
> https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html)

Unfortunately that version of groff's Texinfo manual corresponds to the
most recent groff release, which is sadly 4½ years old: groff 1.22.4 of
December 2018.

There have been some changes to it since then:

$ COLUMNS=72 git diff --stat 1.22.4 doc/groff.texi
warning: refname '1.22.4' is ambiguous.
 doc/groff.texi | 20342 +++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------
 1 file changed, 11020 insertions(+), 9322 deletions(-)

Bertrand and I trying to get 1.23.0 finalized, but his availability is
pretty limited.  When it _does_ release, the copy of the manual at the
GNU website will be updated.

In the meantime, I recommend checking out my Dropbox account for much
more up to date copies.  At present there is a folder for 1.23.0.rc4,
but in the parent is even more up-to-date documentation generated from
groff Git HEAD.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/17ftu3z31couf07/AAC_9kq0ZA-Ra2ZhmZFWlLuva?dl=0

I think the current state of the manual is responsive to your questions;
please check out the sections "Numeric Expressions" (pp. 79-82) and
"Conditional Blocks" (pp. 165-167).

Please advise me if the material seems incomplete, misleading, or
unclear to you.

Regards,
Branden

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