On Wed, Dec 04, 2024, Douglas McIlroy wrote:
> I don't see this wording as an improvement:
>
> > .ne d Advance drawing position to the next vertical
> > position trap and spring the trap, if it is
> > nearer than distance d (default scaling unit v).
>
> The proposal uses nonstandard terminology ("drawing position"),
> and is ambiguously worded. It is easy to misread "if" as applying
> only to the "spring" clause rather than to the compound of
> "advance" and "spring".
>
> Also .ne is effective in the absence of traps, a fact that groff(7)
> misses, too.
How about
.ne d Spring the next vertical postion trap if it is nearer than
distance d (default scaling unit v). In the absence of a
trap, break to a new page if page bottom is nearer than d.
Removes grammatical ambiguity and covers all the bases.
--
Peter Schaffter
https://www.schaffter.ca
