[bug #59434] doc/groff.texi: document .if / .ie interaction more clearly

[Dave]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?59434>

                 Summary: doc/groff.texi: document .if / .ie interaction more
clearly
                 Project: GNU troff
            Submitted by: barx
            Submitted on: Mon 09 Nov 2020 06:00:57 AM CST
                Category: Core
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: Documentation
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None

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Details:

Consensus on the email list (thread starting at
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2020-09/msg00000.html) is that


.if COND1 .ie COND2 xxx
.          el yyy


is not a legal construction (or rather, is only legal when COND1 is true). 
But the documentation does not make this clear, saying the part after the
condition in an .if request "is interpreted as though it were on a line by
itself."  Were the .ie in fact on a line by itself, groff wouldn't emit an
"unbalanced .el request" warning when COND1 is false.

Further down the email thread, Branden writes a lengthy analysis why .if
"hides" an .ie but processes \{ and \}.  While informative, hopefully there is
a more succinct way to explain this in the groff documentation.




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