Re: [Groff] Re: groff 1.19.1 complains when formatting its own man pages

[Clarke Echols]

I got bitten by this in 1985 in the very old AT&T troff.  Don't
use more than six args to a macro.  If you need to use more, finish
the line with a '\c' so you keep control of whitespace, then use
another macro call.

Sure, you can increase it, but if you're writing for multiple
operating systems (that use nroff, for example to display manpages
as in HP-UX), keep the arg count to six or fewer.  It's not that
difficult to live with.

Clarke 

Werner LEMBERG wrote:
> 
> >       * contrib/mm/groff_mm.man, man/groff_out.man: Don't pass more
> >       than 9 arguments to a standard macro, for the benefit of old
> >       systems whose macros are interpreted in compatibility mode.
> 
> Hmm, `an' 1.15 from SunOS 5.6 has this:
> 
>   .de B
>   .ft 3
>   .it 1 }N
>   .if !"\\$1"" \&\\$1 \\$2 \\$3 \\$4 \\$5 \\$6
>   ..
> 
> With other words, only up to *six* arguments are allowed with `.B'.
> 
>     Werner
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