>> I think it's [.tfk] a poorly implemented request. > > Well, it's a cheap implementation.
Yes, that's a better way to put it. (-: >> Since the documentation states one of the problems -- "the track >> kerning amount is added even to the rightmost glyph in a line" -- I >> suppose this can't technically be called a bug, but there would seem >> to be almost no situations where this would be desired behavior. > > The only real solution is to completely redesign the layout engine, > switching to a TeX-like paragraph handling algorithm. I admit to not knowing the internals of the formatting algorithm, but I don't see why solving this problem requires the algorithm to change. To solve it, internally groff could just do what it currently advises the user to do: pretend the line is longer by the amount of padding being added to each glyph. (groff already knows this amount; to the user, it's not obvious, as the amount is calculated based on parameters the user supplies.) Granted, the issue is somewhat academic, as revamping the formatting algorithm is already considered a higher priority than tweaking .tkf, and there's no one available to do either one.
