At 2026-02-22T13:09:24+0100, Morten Bo Johansen wrote: > On 2026-02-22 dvalin--- via GNU roff typesetting system discussion wrote: > > Excessive consistency can sometimes reduce utility, in my experience.
> But the bottom line here is that the macro description for e.g. the .AU > macro in groff_ms looks like this: > > .AU Specify an author’s name. ms collects text on input lines (...) > > and in groff_mm, for an identically named macro, it looks like this: > > AU [name [initials [loc [dept [ext [room [arg1 [arg2 [arg3]]]]]]]]] > Specify author > > This is just plain inconsistent in a non-excusable way. I largely agree. I'm not happy with it. But I'd resolve the inconsistency in the opposite direction from your preference, and leave groff_man*(7) inconsistent with the new norm on purpose, because so many authors of man(7) documents read and learn nothing else about *roff and, inasmuch as they don't learn it, they really shouldn't be undertaking macro definition on their own. Let alone renaming, removing, appending to, or aliasing macros. Those operations demand more than a superficial understanding of the formatter's language. (You can get away with cargo-culting until a crate explodes...) In my previous response I sketched a medium- to long-term solution for improving search operations on man page contents. Regards, Branden
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