[bug #60512] [ms]: want AD string to control default adjustment mode

[G. Branden Robinson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?60512>

                 Summary: [ms]: want AD string to control default adjustment
mode
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: gbranden
            Submitted on: Mon 03 May 2021 04:47:42 PM UTC
                Category: Macro - ms
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: New feature
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: gbranden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

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Details:

Now that ms is working more nicely in nroff mode, it's getting more annoying
to diff changes to the output when adjusting to both margins as is the
default, because as soon as a change alters the output line count by an odd
number, lines get adjusted from the opposite side, creating spurious
differences.

I'd like to be able to say "-dAD=l" when generating an ms document.

This is similar to a recent change I made to our man macros (commit e7094b20,
22 August 2020).  (mdoc also now "supports" the AD string by explicitly
recognizing but ignoring it [to keep the string name from being used for some
other purpose, and to preserve macro package agnosticism in the man page
interface], since it always uses adjustment mode "l".)
 
I reckon such a feature would also be welcomed by those who dislike adjustment
to both margins in general.

Any given document could, of course, still force the adjustment to any mode it
pleases, though setting \*[AD] would become the preferred way to do this. 
(I'm thinking ms will need to intercept the .ad request anyway to make ".ad"
with no argument do ".ad \*[AD]" instead.)






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