>> Note that using only straight quotes like '...' is not a good
>> replacement for input IMHO; I much prefer paired quotes.
>
> For input, absolutely. Non-identical paired delimiters are one
> reason why $() is better than `` for process substitution in the
> shell.
Well, $(...) is not as portable as `...` – the former is a POSIX
extension and not part of the original Bourne shell. For example,
`/bin/sh' on Solaris 10 (from September 2010, which is not that old)
doesn't support it.[*] Please bear in mind that troff is ancient, and
groff should thus probably support installation on rather ancient
versions of various operating systems.
I suggest to follow the `Portable Shell Programming' chapter in the
autoconf info manual, which gives all the glorious details – I know
that a new autoconf release is overdue, but it is still *the* resource
for such issues. If in doubt, look into the `configure' script and
check how it is done there.
Werner
[*] However, Solaris 11 does support it.
