[bug #62717] [me] persistence of $s register undocumented

[Dave]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?62717>

                 Summary: [me] persistence of $s register undocumented
                 Project: GNU troff
               Submitter: barx
               Submitted: Thu 07 Jul 2022 06:44:11 AM CDT
                Category: Macro me
                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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Follow-up Comments:


-------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu 07 Jul 2022 06:44:11 AM CDT By: Dave <barx>
I discovered this potential documentation gap when poking around bug #61671,
but it's really a separate issue, one that existed before that bug's commit
01cf10eb <http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/commit/?id=01cf10eb> and
continues to exist after it.

-me's .2c is documented to set the $s register to the space between columns
(a.k.a. the gutter).  Once .1c is invoked, though, this value is no longer
meaningful, so one might reasonably expect it to be discarded.  But it is not;
it's retained and will be used as the gutter of the next call to .2c if that
call is not given a gutter value.  (When .2c is given two parameters: before
the bug #61671 fix, not specifying a gutter provoked a warning, but worked
anyway; after that fix, it works without complaint.)

The manual would seem to be clearer if it expressly stated $s's persistence.

Input to demonstrate the phenomenon:

.2c 10n
These are a bunch of words that say absolutely nothing.
.bc
These are a bunch of words that say absolutely nothing.
.1c
.sp
These are a bunch of words that say absolutely nothing.
.sp
.2c
These are a bunch of words that say absolutely nothing.
.bc
These are a bunch of words that say absolutely nothing.








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