On Fri, Feb 03, 2023, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > I felt it was unorthogonal for `ab` to force a message onto the > standard error stream when the `tm` request (and groff's several > relatives of it) already existed.[1] > > Part of the idea here is that you can then use `am` to stick an abort > request onto any other macro, perhaps one which already produced a > perfectly diagnostic message, without having to just through any hoops.
The reasoning makes sense but now you have to jump through a hoop when you're using .ab for debugging. I usually debug with the -z flag. Formerly, echo -e ".nr foo 1\n.if r foo .ab\n" | groff -z would helpfully spit out "User abort." Now there's no way to know whether groff exited cleanly or aborted unless you add a string after .ab. (A minor annoyance, but I thought I should mention it.) -- Peter Schaffter https://www.schaffter.ca