Re: groff now undoing .ad settings after .IP

[Dave Kemper]

On Sun, Mar 17, 2024 at 3:53 PM G. Branden Robinson
<g.branden.robinson@gmail.com> wrote:
> At 2024-03-16T12:32:44-0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> > 1. Do you think you'll change the long-standing groff default from
> >    full justification to ragged right under nroff in the an macro set
> >    for the next release?
>
> No.
> Here are a few reasons.

I'm in Ingo's camp in opposing man page full justification, but since
I can shut it off for myself, I've never felt the need to push for any
change on the groff end.  But I'm not sold on these points in its
defense.

>   Apparently, man page users on these systems have been
>   accepting of adjustment ("full justification") for decades.

Or, like Frederic Chartier and me, they're overriding this default locally.

>   James Clark seems to have used emulation of a SunOS 4 troff as a
>   basis for his original work on GNU troff,

While an interesting evolutionary note, this doesn't seem to have much
bearing on how groff 2024 should behave.

>   GNU roff also seems to have a principle that formatting for the
>   terminal shall be done as similarly to that for typesetters as
>   possible, within the admittedly severe constraints of the former.

I agree this is a laudable general principle for GNU roff.  I don't
think this means its -man package needs to accept this default.

>   It's _good_ for man page authors to minimize their assumptions in
>   this respect.

True, but the AD configuration string will take care of this (perhaps
in even stronger terms, if users can set it to centering or ragged
left).

>     One of the things I'd like a DeLorean for is to go back to Murray
>     Hill in 1973 or so and yell, "Joe!  Save the future!  Make `it`
>     respect `\c`!"
>
>     The fiery balrog Ken Thompson would then implode me with his gaze...

Please bring a GoPro with you.  There needs to be footage of this, and
any consumer video-recording technology of the early 1970s will
produce a format difficult to view today.