Re: [Groff] ASCII Minus Sign in man Pages

[Mike Bianchi]

On Thu, May 04, 2017 at 11:30:20AM +0100, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> > > But - has always meant hyphen in pre-groff troff because it's a lot
> > > more common to want a hyphen in writing than a minus sign.
> >
> > _I_ would claim this interpretation was a mistake.
> 
> Well, 7th Ed. documents that have `.if n' and `.if t' use - for an
> English hyphen and \- for a numeric minus, e.g.
>       :

Just to be clear, I am _not_ saying that wasn't how it was documented and
implemented.  I am just saying that it has made the world more complicated than
_I_ would like.  Typing \(hy for hyphen would have been a heavy burden,
especially in the absence of the  .char  groff extension.

Probably the best solution available now is fixing any incorrect documentation
so as to speak truth.

-- 
 Mike Bianchi