Hi Ingo, At 2026-08-22T15:46:01+0200, Ingo Schwarze wrote: > G. Branden Robinson wrote on Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 10:34:50PM -0500: > > Larry Kollar wrote: > >> [1] How the **** did 20 years go by that fast? > > > The size of size of a year's worth of experience or memories is that > > a person perceives is, other things equal, a logarithmic function of > > their age. When your're 10 years old, 5 years was half your > > lifetime ago: "forever". When your're 50, 5 years was only 10% of > > your lifetime ago--a tangible, but only relatively a short while > > back. > > I think there are at least three additional effects exacerbating > what you are saying: > > 1. On average, younger minds and bodies work faster than older ones, > so the same amount of physical time keeps getting neurologically > and biologically shorter. > > 2. On average, younger minds and bodies have more endurance > than older ones, so the time one can work before getting tired > and needing rest keeps getting shorter, and the fraction of > each day that can be used for intense work keeps diminishing. > > 3. With life experience, awareness tends to grow of all the things > that would be worth doing - both worth doing for *someone* for the > benefit of humanity (or even the planet) as a whole and also worth > doing for your own personal benefit and your friends and family. > While a child is often completely focussed on what they are doing > or want to do *right now*, the capacity for viewing situations > and activities in a broader context grows with experience - which > also makes time feel shorter relative to the need for time.
I agree that these are all factors. If neuropsychology had a good way
to measure the storage consumption of narrative memory, we could test my
hypothesis regarding the nature of the first-order term in my proposed
function!
> To get back on topic, yes, i do occasionally use groff_mm(7).
> It seems especially useful for presentation slides.
Neat! Do you have an example you'd care to share?
I could also add a note to the top of the groff_mm(7) page documenting
the other major differences between DWB and groff mm. Here's how that
part reads at present.
groff mm is intended to be compatible with the mm implementation
found in the AT&T Documenter’s Workbench 3.3 (“DWB”), with the
following limitations and changes.
• Omitted features include the logo and company name strings, }Z
and ]S, respectively; the encoded company site location
addresses recognized as the third argument to the AU macro; the
Pv (“private” heading) register; and the OK (other keywords) and
PM (proprietary markings) macros.
• groff mm implements the CS (output cover page or “sheet”) macro
only for memorandum type 4.
• The grap preprocessor is not explicitly supported; groff mm
defines no G1 or G2 macros.
• Registers A, C, T, and U, set from the troff or nroff command
lines with DWB, are not recognized.
• When setting the registers L or W from the command line, use an
explicit scaling unit to avoid surprises.
• The Le register defaults to 1, consistently with Lf, Lt, and Lx
in DWB; equations captioned with EC appear in tables of contents
produced by TC.
• The Li register configures the text indentation of RL list
items; DWB used a hard‐coded value of 6 ens.
• groff mm uses the same adjustment and font style defaults in
nroff and troff modes.
• Cut marks are not supported.
DWB supported only seven heading levels. As a compatible
extension, groff mm supports fourteen, introducing new registers H8
through H14, and affecting the interpretation of the HF and HP
strings.
groff mm features a citation (or “bookmark”) system, permitting the
document to make (customizable) internal references like “See
chapter 5, page 128.”. Forward references require two‐pass
formatting. See the INITR macro description below and mmroff(1).
Macro, register, and string descriptions in this page frequently
mention each other; most references are to macros. Where a
register or string is referenced, its type is explicitly
identified. mm’s macro names are usually in full capitals;
registers and strings tend to have mixed‐case names.
Except where noted, mm assumes that horizontal measurements are
reckoned in ens (scaling unit n) and vertical ones in vees (scaling
unit v). groff mm permits use of non‐integral typographical points
(scaling unit z). Use explicit scaling units for clarity and
predictable behavior.
A brief note about checkmm(1) would likely fit as one of the bullet
points.
The man page a few minor additional differencies from DWB mm in
individual macro descriptions.
Example:
TH Mark the end of a TS/TE table heading. When a table spans
multiple pages, the heading repeats at the top of each
page. groff mm does not implement the N argument supported
by DWB.
The document has seen thorough, extensive revision since groff 1.22.4.
Regards,
Branden
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