[groff] 19/22: [ms]: Encourage use of more intuitive feature.

[G. Branden Robinson]

gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
in repository groff.

commit 462925d32f85c6b9809225f72f030e64c996915f
Author: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
AuthorDate: Wed Jul 28 11:46:16 2021 +1000

    [ms]: Encourage use of more intuitive feature.
    
    Even reading the original thread that led to the fractional point size
    rescaling feature[1], I find it hard to motivate usage of it when the
    "p" scale unit is available and other implementations (like Heirloom)
    produce no diagnostics when given a register setting or point size they
    can't interpret (they just ignore the request).
    
    So why do this:
      .\" I want 10.5 point type if I can get it.
      .ie \n(GS .nr PS 10500
      .el       .nr PS 10
    when you can do this?
      .\" I want 10.5 point type if I can get it.
      .ie \n(GS .nr PS 10.5p
      .el       .nr PS 10
    
    [1] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2004-01/msg00014.html
---
 doc/groff.texi      |  9 ++++++---
 doc/ms.ms           | 14 +++++++++++++-
 tmac/groff_ms.7.man | 10 +++++++++-
 3 files changed, 28 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/groff.texi b/doc/groff.texi
index c79bc99..a44178e 100644
--- a/doc/groff.texi
+++ b/doc/groff.texi
@@ -2697,7 +2697,9 @@ Defines the point size of the body text.  If the value is 
larger than or
 equal to 1000, it is divided by 1000 to get a fractional point size.
 For example, @samp{.nr PS 10500} sets the document's type size to
 10.5@dmn{points}.  This rescaling of large point sizes is a GNU
-extension.
+extension.  In @file{ms} documents that don't need to be portable to
+other implementations, using a scaling indicator, as in @samp{.nr PS
+10.5p}, is preferable.
 
 Effective: next paragraph.
 
@@ -2950,8 +2952,9 @@ Default: 2@dmn{n}.
 and vertical spacing.  To overcome this restriction, for certain
 registers @code{groff} @file{ms} interprets values equal to or larger
 than 1000 as decimal fractions multiplied by 1000.  The registers
-@code{PS}, @code{VS}, @code{FPS}, and @code{FVS} accept fractional point
-sizes.
+@code{PS}, @code{VS}, @code{FPS}, and @code{FVS} accept such point
+sizes.  See the @code{PS} register in @ref{ms Document Control
+Settings}.
 
 @c ---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/doc/ms.ms b/doc/ms.ms
index 6802e6a..8fb483e 100644
--- a/doc/ms.ms
+++ b/doc/ms.ms
@@ -402,7 +402,19 @@ The registers
 .CW FPS ,
 and
 .CW FVS
-accept fractional point sizes.
+accept such point sizes.
+.
+For example,
+.CW ".nr PS 10500" \[rq] \[lq]
+sets the document's type size to 10.5\~points.
+.
+In
+.I ms
+documents that don't need to be portable to other implementations,
+using a scaling indicator,
+as in
+.CW ".nr PS 10.5p" \[rq], \[lq]
+is preferable.
 .
 .
 .\" ------------------------
diff --git a/tmac/groff_ms.7.man b/tmac/groff_ms.7.man
index 5b0d213..08e03f0 100644
--- a/tmac/groff_ms.7.man
+++ b/tmac/groff_ms.7.man
@@ -369,7 +369,15 @@ The registers
 .BR FPS ,
 and
 .B FVS
-accept fractional point sizes.
+accept such point sizes.
+.
+In
+.I ms
+documents that don't need to be portable to other implementations,
+using a scaling indicator,
+as in
+.RB \[lq] ".nr PS 10.5p" \[rq],
+is preferable.
 .
 .
 .\" ====================================================================