Re: missing -Tpdf (and the curious case of mandoc_roff(7))

[G. Branden Robinson]

At 2023-07-30T09:35:28+1000, John Gardner wrote:
[I wrote:]
> > I wonder why mandoc didn't just call its roff(7) page mandoc(7), given
> > that it parallels groff(7) more than anything else.
> 
> Strictly speaking, Groff is at fault here; the manual page dedicated
> to the Roff language proper should have been named as such,

Eh?  That's precisely what it is.  It covers matters that are (more or
less) common to all roff implementations.  Have you looked at it?

roff(7)             Miscellaneous Information Manual             roff(7)

Name
    roff - concepts and history of roff typesetting

Description
    The term roff denotes a family of document formatting systems known
    by names like troff, nroff, and ditroff.  A roff system consists of
    an interpreter for an extensible text formatting language and a set
    of programs for preparing output for various devices and file
    formats.  Unix‐like operating systems often distribute a roff
    system.  The manual pages on Unix systems (“man pages”) and
    bestselling books on software engineering, including Brian Kernighan
    and Dennis Ritchie’s The C Programming Language and W. Richard
    Stevens’s Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment have been
    written using roff systems.  GNU roff—groff—is arguably the most
    widespread roff implementation.

    Below we present typographical concepts that form the background of
    all roff implementations, narrate the development history of some
    roff systems, detail the command pipeline managed by groff(1),
    survey the formatting language, suggest tips for editing roff input,
    and recommend further reading materials.

[...800+ more lines of text follow...]

> whereas groff(1) pertains to an executable.

Yes.  And groff(7) describes the language interpreted by GNU troff(1).

groff_diff(1) covers the differences from CSTR #54.

> So, mandoc's naming is correct nomenclature, IMHO.

If you want to argue that only an equivalent to CSTR #54 deserves the
roff(7) page, then mandoc(1) doesn't get that any more right than we do.
And it likely won't, because so many roff language features are beyond
the scope of that project's mission.

Regards,
Branden

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature