Re: [PATCH] man page typo in spelling of lsn and lss registers?

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Alexis,

At 2023-07-12T13:14:59+0200, Alexis wrote:
> reading through the groff(7) manpage I noticed an inconsistency in the
> spelling of the \n[lsn] and \n[lss] registers:
> 
> The "Writable predefined registers" section references
> 
>   `\n[lsn]` and `\n[lss]`
> 
> whereas the paragraphs under the "Traps" section mention
> 
>   `\n[.lsn]` and `\n[.lss]` (notice the leading period `.`)

Yup, that's an error--thanks for catching this!

> A quick grep over the sources and groff.texi reveals several
> occurrences of `lsn` and `lss` yet  the period-prefixed variant only
> appears in groff.7.man:
> 
> % grep -R 'ls[sn]' src doc/groff.texi
> src/roff/troff/input.cpp:  register_dictionary.define("lsn", new 
> variable_reg(&leading_spaces_number));
> src/roff/troff/input.cpp:  register_dictionary.define("lss", new 
> variable_reg(&leading_spaces_space));

That's the source of truth, as it were.

> My current understanding of groff's code base is virtually
> non-existent and I may have missed some crucial aspects and things in
> regards to the aforementioned inconsistency and things are as they
> should be.  In that case I'd appreciate pointers that would help me
> understand why the things are the way they are.

No worries, you found a real documentation error and the location in the
source that gives the lie to it.

The error was probably mine when I revised the "Traps" section of our
Texinfo manual and added it to groff(7).

> Otherwise please find attached a patch that removes the leading period
> `.` from the \n[lsn] and \n[lss] registers in the "Traps" section in
> groff.7.man.

Thanks!  I'll apply this and it will be in my next push to master.

> diff --git a/man/groff.7.man b/man/groff.7.man
> index 8d8d9bbd0..c35ca0431 100644
> --- a/man/groff.7.man
> +++ b/man/groff.7.man
> @@ -7265,9 +7265,9 @@ page ejection status
>  .RB ( \[rs]n[.pe] ),
>  and
>  leading space count
> -.RB ( \[rs]n[.lsn] )
> +.RB ( \[rs]n[lsn] )
>  with its corresponding amount of motion
> -.RB ( \[rs]n[.lss] ).
> +.RB ( \[rs]n[lss] ).
>  .
>  .
>  .\" ====================================================================

Regards,
Branden

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