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| -rw-r--r-- | mdoc.7 | 96 |
1 files changed, 54 insertions, 42 deletions
@@ -31,12 +31,9 @@ language is used to format .Bx .Ux manuals. In this reference document, we describe its syntax, structure, -and usage. Our reference implementation is -.Xr mandoc 1 . -The +and usage. Our reference implementation is mandoc; the .Sx COMPATIBILITY -section describes compatibility with -.Xr groff 1 . +section describes compatibility with other troff \-mdoc implementations. . .Pp An @@ -1322,8 +1319,7 @@ and .Sx \&Ux . . .Ss \&Cd -Configuration declaration (suggested for use in section four and nine -manuals). This denotes strings accepted by +Configuration declaration. This denotes strings accepted by .Xr config 8 . .Pp Examples: @@ -1906,53 +1902,54 @@ Examples: . . .Sh COMPATIBILITY -This section documents compatibility with other roff implementations, at -this time limited to -.Xr groff 1 . +This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other +troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff +.Pq Qq groff . The term .Qq historic groff -refers to those versions before the +refers to groff versions before the .Pa doc.tmac file re-write .Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 . . .Pp +Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting +\-mdoc, is similar to historic groff. +. +.Pp .Bl -dash -compact .It The comment syntax .Sq \e." is no longer accepted. +. .It -In -.Xr groff 1 , -the +In groff, the .Sx \&Pa macro does not format its arguments when used in the FILES section under -certain list types. This irregular behaviour has been discontinued. +certain list types. mandoc does. +. .It -Historic -.Xr groff 1 -does not print a dash for empty +Historic groff does not print a dash for empty .Sx \&Fl -arguments. This behaviour has been discontinued. +arguments. mandoc and newer groff implementations do. .It -.Xr groff 1 -behaves strangely (even between versions) when specifying +groff behaves irregularly when specifying .Sq \ef -escapes within line-macro scopes. These aberrations have been -normalised. +.Sx Text Decoration +within line-macro scopes. mandoc follows a consistent system. +. .It -Negative scaling units are now truncated to zero instead of creating -interesting conditions, such as with -.Sx \&sp -.Fl 1i . -Furthermore, the +In mandoc, negative scaling units are truncated to zero; groff would +move to prior lines. Furthermore, the .Sq f scaling unit, while accepted, is rendered as the default unit. +. .It In quoted literals, groff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce a standalone double-quote in formatted output. This idiosyncratic -behaviour is no longer applicable. +behaviour is not applicable in mandoc. +. .It Display types .Sx \&Bd @@ -1960,10 +1957,11 @@ Display types and .Fl right are aliases for -.Fl left . -The +.Fl left +in manodc. Furthermore, the .Fl file Ar file -argument is ignored. Since text is not right-justified, +argument is ignored. Lastly, since text is not right-justified in +mandoc (or even groff), .Fl ragged and .Fl filled @@ -1971,36 +1969,50 @@ are aliases, as are .Fl literal and .Fl unfilled . +. .It -Blocks of whitespace are stripped from both macro and free-form text -lines (except when in literal mode), while groff would retain whitespace -in free-form text lines. +In mandoc, blocks of whitespace are stripped from both macro and +free-form text lines (except when in literal mode); groff would retain +whitespace in free-form text lines. +. .It Historic groff has many un-callable macros. Most of these (excluding -some block-level macros) are now callable, conforming to the -non-historic groff version. +some block-level macros) are now callable. +. .It The vertical bar .Sq \(ba made historic groff .Qq go orbital -but is a proper delimiter in this implementation. +but has been a proper delimiter since then. +. .It -.Sx \&It -.Fl nested +.Sx \&It Fl nested is assumed for all lists (it wasn't in historic groff): any list may be nested and .Fl enum lists will restart the sequence only for the sub-list. +. .It Some manuals use .Sx \&Li incorrectly by following it with a reserved character and expecting the -delimiter to render. This is not supported. +delimiter to render. This is not supported in mandoc. +. .It In groff, the .Sx \&Fo -macro only produces the first parameter. This is no longer the case. +macro only produces the first parameter. This is not the case in +mandoc. +. +.It +In groff, the +.Sx \&Cd , +.Sx \&Er , +and +.Sx \&Ex +macros were stipulated only to occur in certain manual sections. mandoc +does not have these restrictions. .El . . |