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From: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Newsgroups: comp.text,news.software.b,comp.lang.perl
Subject: Re: Awf: Henry's Amazingly Workable Formatter (was Re: Groff)
Message-ID: <10416@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Date: 16 Nov 90 00:54:57 GMT
References: <28619@shamash.cdc.com> <10354@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Nov14.094039.11153@robobar.co.uk> <90Nov14.184836est.19909@me.utoronto.ca> <1990Nov15.170711.6778@zoo.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall)
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
Lines: 24

In article <1990Nov15.170711.6778@zoo.toronto.edu> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
: In article <90Nov14.184836est.19909@me.utoronto.ca> eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick) writes:
: >... Problems with the lines:
: >	''
: >which mostly contained comments and other things...
: 
: Sounds like Larry needs to go back to his manual and find out what the
: nroff/troff comment convention is.  (Hint:  it's not ''.)

Gee, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to be patronizing...  :-)

At the point that I developed the ''' habit, I had seen several documents
that used it in preference to .\", and I had the hope that it would become an
allowed alternative convention.  This has turned out not to be the case,
alas, but that doesn't change the fact that it's easier to type and stands
out more visually.  I think anything that encourages people to insert and
read comments has something to be said for it.  I'm sure you've noticed
that I occasionally try to change the conventions.  :-)

Speaking of conventions, I would think that awf, like nroff, would simply
ignore any macros it doesn't recognize.  (Though I can see arguments
for taking the opposite tack.)

Larry