Re: .TQ to replace .PD 0

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi,

Doug wrote:
> I fail to see any case for deprecating .PD.

It seems pointless for GNU Groff to attempt to deprecate .PD when it is
only one of the man-page formatters and has no control over the many
existing man pages.  Even if GNU adherents strike out its use within
their reach, it must still be supported.  To deprecate it just introduces
confusion to users in the same way as the revisionism which is renaming
central core concepts from their familiar, long-held, names.

There are many things which would be done differently today than forty
or fifty years ago, but GNU Groff's role in being software compatible
with the Unix version should not be the playground in which to toy with
these changes.  New macros packages allow much more freedom.  And wouldn't
it be great to see a new text formatter in a modern language like Go try
all sorts of experiments whilst still tipping its hat towards troff in
its basic line-oriented, low noise, syntax?

-- 
Cheers, Ralph.