Follow-up Comment #4, bug #68299 (group groff):

On Thursday, 30 April 2026 21:53:46 BST you wrote:
> Follow-up Comment #3, bug #68299 (group groff):
>
> At 2026-04-30T16:19:52-0400, Deri James wrote:
>> Follow-up Comment #2, bug #68299 (group groff):
>>
>> On Thursday, 30 April 2026 19:51:36 BST you wrote:
>>> What distinguishes this ticket from bug #67665?  Does this one
>>> supersede the earlier one?
>>
>> That bug concerned pdfms.tmac which operated as an addon (in the same
>> way as spdf.tmac was an addon to pdfmark.tmac, which required the user
>> to use the newer NH/XN combination rather than the original NH to
>> create bookmarks).
>
> Ahhhhaaaaa.  </TomBaker>

Who?

>> Given that most historical ms documents would use NH (with XS/XE if a
>> TOC was required), I wanted to make s.tmac support them without adding
>> non roffish flag letters to macro calls. The use of ".pdfhref M" to
>> "mark" a position in the document is unfortunate, I would prefer a
>> native ms macro such as:-
>>
>> .XM name [text]
>>
>> instead.
>
> I share your preference.

I've added it.

Now the only feature missing from ms is "external links" (you have to use
".pdfhref W -D URI ...", so not very ms). How about "borrowing" UR/UE (MT/ME)
from man?

>> This could also obviate the need for dual working tricks based on
>> testing PDFFEAT. I didn't feel confident whether extending the s.tmac
>> repertoire of commands was really my choice.
>
> groff_ms(7) (and of course ms.ms) documents many extensions.  Some are
> Berkeley's, some are Unix V10's, and some are ours.
>
> Further, groff ms doesn't work in compatibility mode, so a hard-bitten
> legacy document written in old-school ".dsabcd" style won't work anyway.
> I've had some exchanges on this subject with Clem Cole, who is using
> groff to render some early Unix System V-era man(7) and ms(7) documents
> with groff, to incomplete success.

Is this something I could help with, an example document(s) would help.

> Reinforcing existing good idioms is desirable.
>
> Relieving the document author of having to repeat themselves is too.
>
> I largely liked Keith's `XN` and `XH` extensions, which reduced the
> amount of labor required by the document author to get section headings
> into the table of contents.
>
> (Why only "largely"?  I don't completely understand the motivation for
> `XN-REPLACEMENT`, when one can replace `XN` itself.  And I regret that
> there's no ability to suppress the leader dots, as one might desire for
> bridgeheads.  Keith also parameterized `TC-LEADER` as a string, but it's
> reset only at each TOC in toto, and so is not configurable for the
> bridgehead application.)

This bit of code confused me too.

.de name1 de
[...]
.de name2
[...]
..

Hurts my brain!!

There are now 3 places that may want different SNs. The text, the bookmark and

the TOC - I left it alone!!!

>> The pdfms bug was the "breeding ground" for the code in this bug, and
>> allowed you to straighten  out the numerous bugs in .asciify upon
>> which this code relies. So, it does supercede the original bug.
>
> Okay.  Is there any reason not to resolve that one?

No, objection to it being  closed.

>>> Revising Summary; see
>>> [https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/groff/2026-04/msg00061.html
>>> mailing list cogitation].
>>
>> I'm happy. Although I must admit to being a bit flummoxed, but if you
>> are happy to zoom in and correct my mistaken tags, I shan't worry.
>
> Doesn't bother me to tidy them up.  I can easily keep pace with the
> influx of groff Savannah tickets, as evidenced by the fact that I've
> submitted 649 of the 1,801 filed to date.

Thank you Branden, the amount of work you do is impressive.



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