At 2023-07-30T09:35:28+1000, John Gardner wrote: [I wrote:] > > I wonder why mandoc didn't just call its roff(7) page mandoc(7), given > > that it parallels groff(7) more than anything else. > > Strictly speaking, Groff is at fault here; the manual page dedicated > to the Roff language proper should have been named as such,
Eh? That's precisely what it is. It covers matters that are (more or
less) common to all roff implementations. Have you looked at it?
roff(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual roff(7)
Name
roff - concepts and history of roff typesetting
Description
The term roff denotes a family of document formatting systems known
by names like troff, nroff, and ditroff. A roff system consists of
an interpreter for an extensible text formatting language and a set
of programs for preparing output for various devices and file
formats. Unix‐like operating systems often distribute a roff
system. The manual pages on Unix systems (“man pages”) and
bestselling books on software engineering, including Brian Kernighan
and Dennis Ritchie’s The C Programming Language and W. Richard
Stevens’s Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment have been
written using roff systems. GNU roff—groff—is arguably the most
widespread roff implementation.
Below we present typographical concepts that form the background of
all roff implementations, narrate the development history of some
roff systems, detail the command pipeline managed by groff(1),
survey the formatting language, suggest tips for editing roff input,
and recommend further reading materials.
[...800+ more lines of text follow...]
> whereas groff(1) pertains to an executable.
Yes. And groff(7) describes the language interpreted by GNU troff(1).
groff_diff(1) covers the differences from CSTR #54.
> So, mandoc's naming is correct nomenclature, IMHO.
If you want to argue that only an equivalent to CSTR #54 deserves the
roff(7) page, then mandoc(1) doesn't get that any more right than we do.
And it likely won't, because so many roff language features are beyond
the scope of that project's mission.
Regards,
Branden
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