Follow-up Comment #13, bug #67380 (group groff): At 2025-10-25T21:41:57-0400, Dave wrote: > Follow-up Comment #12, bug #67380 (group groff): > > [comment #11 comment #11:] >> I think it strengthens the case for a GNU _troff_ extension to >> the `fl` request that makes it argumentful, > > Ah, yes, if you're considering only expanded syntax that introduces > new behavior, I have no objection: that breaks no (valid) existing > usage. I read the last paragraph of comment #8 as a proposal to > change the behavior of an unadorned .fl.
Right--there I said (correcting my botched syntax for the no-break
control character):
> Also, we could change "'fl" to go ahead and write the document
> preamble.
Writing the preamble would be _necessary_ if the `fl` request were given
any arguments that marked various bits of output driver state as
"dirty"; doing so is synonymous with telling the driver to write
applicable _grout_ commands. But it's not valid to write those commands
before the preamble is emitted.
So a hypothetical document that started this way...
'fl hpos
\X'pdf: /wackycoolimageinsertion feature /Exec'\c
foobar
...would need to write the document preamble upon reading the first
input line.
(Maybe in a real document, the flush request would come _after_ the
device extension escape sequence. We're so deep into *roff estoerica
that I don't have any practical scenarios to offer. Deri probably
could. He knows all about device extension commands that alter
drawing properties of the output; image interpolation in particular
demands close management of the drawing position if chaos is to be
avoided.)
But in contrast, a document that looks like this...
'fl
foobar
...wouldn't *need* to write a document preamble at all.
And indeed it does not.
$ printf "'fl\n" | ~/groff-1.23.0/bin/groff -Z | grep . || echo NO OUTPUT
NO OUTPUT
$ printf "'fl\n" | ~/groff-HEAD/bin/groff -Z | grep . || echo NO OUTPUT
NO OUTPUT
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