TODO

   1 ************************************************************************
   2 * Official mandoc TODO.
   3 * $Id: TODO,v 1.104 2011/04/30 10:18:24 kristaps Exp $
   4 ************************************************************************
   5
   6 ************************************************************************
   7 * parser bugs
   8 ************************************************************************
   9
  10 - .TP before .SH is still FATAL in man(7)
  11   reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:54:54 -0500
  12
  13 - the roff parser doesn't tolerate additional characters between
  14   a macro and the \} terminating a conditional block, e.g.
  15   .if n \{
  16   .br \}
  17   reported by ulrich spoerlein  Tue, 19 Oct 2010 20:39:50 +0200
  18
  19 ************************************************************************
  20 * formatter bugs
  21 ************************************************************************
  22
  23 - tbl(7): Horizontal and vertical lines are formatted badly:
  24   With the box option, there is too much white space at the end of cells.
  25   Horizontal lines from "=" lines are a bit too long.
  26   yuri dot pankov at gmail dot com  Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:45:26 +0400
  27
  28 ************************************************************************
  29 * missing features
  30 ************************************************************************
  31
  32 --- missing roff features ----------------------------------------------
  33
  34 - .ad (adjust margins)
  35   .ad l -- adjust left margin only (flush left)
  36   .ad r -- adjust right margin only (flush right)
  37   .ad c -- center text on line
  38   .ad b -- adjust both margins (alias: .ad n)
  39   .na   -- temporarily disable adjustment without changing the mode
  40   .ad   -- re-enable adjustment without changing the mode
  41   Adjustment mode is ignored while in no-fill mode (.nf).
  42
  43 - .it (line traps) occur in mysql(1), yasm_arch(7)
  44   generated by DocBook XSL Stylesheets v1.71.1 <http://docbook.sf.net/>
  45   reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:48:18 -0500
  46
  47 - .ns (no-space mode) occurs in xine-config(1)
  48   reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:45:23 -0500
  49
  50 - xloadimage(1) wants .ti (temporary indent), rep by naddy@
  51
  52 - .ta (tab settings) occurs in ircbug(1) and probably gnats(1)
  53   reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:50:51 -0500
  54
  55 - pod2man expects `tr' to be implemented for \*(-- to work
  56
  57 - \c (interrupted text) occurs in chat(8)
  58
  59 - \f(CW (constant width font) occurs in rsyncd.conf(5).
  60   I think we should treat unknown/unavailable fonts as \fR
  61   such that switching back with \fP works correctly -
  62   and doesn't revert the _previous_ \fP.
  63
  64 --- missing mdoc features ----------------------------------------------
  65
  66 - fix bad block nesting involving multiple identical explicit blocks
  67   see the OpenBSD mdoc_macro.c 1.47 commit message
  68
  69 - .Bl -column .Xo support is missing
  70   ultimate goal:
  71   restore .Xr and .Dv to
  72   lib/libc/compat-43/sigvec.3
  73   lib/libc/gen/signal.3
  74   lib/libc/sys/sigaction.2
  75
  76 - edge case: decide how to deal with blk_full bad nesting, e.g.
  77   .Sh .Nm .Bk .Nm .Ek .Sh found by jmc@ in ssh-keygen(1)
  78   from jmc@  Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:10:32 +0100
  79
  80 - \\ is now implemented correctly
  81   * when defining strings and macros using .ds and .de
  82   * when parsing roff(7) and man(7) macro arguments
  83   It does not yet work in mdoc(7) macro arguments
  84   because libmdoc does not yet use mandoc_getarg().
  85   Also check what happens in plain text, it must be identical to \e.
  86
  87 - .Bd -filled should not be the same as .Bd -ragged, but align both
  88   the left and right margin.  In groff, it is implemented in terms
  89   of .ad b, which we don't have either.  Found in cksum(1).
  90
  91 - implement blank `Bl -column', such as
  92   .Bl -column
  93   .It foo Ta bar
  94   .El
  95
  96 - explicitly disallow nested `Bl -column', which would clobber internal
  97   flags defined for struct mdoc_macro
  98
  99 - In .Bl -column .It, the end of the line probably has to be regarded
 100   as an implicit .Ta, if there could be one, see the following mildly
 101   ugly code from login.conf(5):
 102     .Bl -column minpasswordlen program xetcxmotd
 103     .It path Ta path Ta value of Dv _PATH_DEFPATH
 104     .br
 105     Default search path.
 106   reported by Michal Mazurek <akfaew at jasminek dot net>
 107   via jmc@ Thu, 7 Apr 2011 16:00:53 +0059
 108
 109 - inside `.Bl -column' phrases, punctuation is handled like normal
 110   text, e.g. `.Bl -column .It Fl x . Ta ...' should give "-x -."
 111
 112 - inside `.Bl -column' phrases, TERMP_IGNDELIM handling by `Pf'
 113   is not safe, e.g. `.Bl -column .It Pf a b .' gives "ab."
 114   but should give "ab ."
 115
 116 - set a meaningful default if no `Bl' list type is assigned
 117
 118 - have a blank `It' head for `Bl -tag' not puke
 119
 120 - prohibit `Nm' from having non-text HEAD children
 121   (e.g., NetBSD mDNSShared/dns-sd.1)
 122   (mdoc_html.c and mdoc_term.c `Nm' handlers can be slightly simplified)
 123
 124 --- missing man features -----------------------------------------------
 125
 126 - .RS/.RE can be nested, see e.g. the x11/fluxbox manuals
 127   noticed by dcoppa@  Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 04:58:14PM +0200:
 128
 129 - groff an-ext.tmac macros (.UR, .UE) occur in xine(5)
 130   reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:45:23 -0500
 131
 132 --- missing tbl features -----------------------------------------------
 133
 134 - implement basic non-parametric .de to support e.g. sox(1)
 135   reported by naddy@ Sat, 16 Oct 2010 23:51:57 +0200
 136   *** sox(1) still doesn't work, tbl(1) errors need investigation
 137
 138 --- missing misc features ----------------------------------------------
 139
 140 - clean up escape sequence handling, creating three classes:
 141   (1) fully implemented, or parsed and ignored without loss of content
 142   (2) unimplemented, potentially causing loss of content
 143       or serious mangling of formatting (e.g. \n) -> ERROR
 144       see textproc/mgdiff(1) for nice examples
 145   (3) undefined, just output the character -> perhaps WARNING
 146
 147 - The \t escape sequence is the same as a literal tab, see for example
 148   the ASCII table in hexdump(1) where
 149     .Bl -column \&000_nu \&001_so \&002_st \&003_et \&004_eo
 150     .It \&000\ nul\t001\ soh\t002\ stx\t003\ etx\t004\ eot\t005\ enq
 151   produces
 152     000 nul  001 soh  002 stx  003 etx  004 eot  005 enq
 153   and the example in oldrdist(1)
 154
 155 - look at pages generated from reStructeredText, e.g. devel/mercurial hg(1)
 156   These are a weird mixture of man(7) and custom autogenerated low-level
 157   roff stuff.  Figure out to what extent we can cope.
 158   For details, see http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
 159   noted by stsp@  Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:17:55 +0200
 160   reminded by nicm@  Mon, 3 May 2010 09:52:41 +0100
 161
 162 - check compatibility with Plan9:
 163   http://swtch.com/usr/local/plan9/tmac/tmac.an
 164   http://swtch.com/plan9port/man/man7/man.html
 165   "Anthony J. Bentley" <anthonyjbentley@gmail.com> 28 Dec 2010 21:58:40 -0700
 166
 167 ************************************************************************
 168 * formatting issues: ugly output
 169 ************************************************************************
 170
 171 - a column list with blank `Ta' cells triggers a spurrious
 172   start-with-whitespace printing of a newline
 173
 174 - double quotes inside double quotes are escaped by doubling them
 175   implement this in mdoc(7), too
 176   so far, we only have it in roff(7) and man(7)
 177   reminded by millert@  Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:29:52 -0500
 178
 179 - perl(1) SYNOPSIS looks bad; reported by deraadt@
 180   1) man(7) seems to need SYNOPSIS .Nm blocks, too
 181
 182 - In .Bl -column,
 183   .It Em Authentication<tab>Key Length
 184   ought to render "Key Length" with emphasis, too,
 185   see OpenBSD iked.conf(5).
 186
 187 - empty phrases in .Bl column produce too few blanks
 188   try e.g. .Bl -column It Ta Ta
 189   reported by millert Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:13:46 -0400
 190
 191 - .%T can have trailing punctuation.  Currently, it puts the trailing
 192   punctuation into a trailing MDOC_TEXT element inside its own scope.
 193   That element should rather be outside its scope, such that the
 194   punctuation does not get underlines.  This is not trivial to
 195   implement because .%T then needs some features of in_line_eoln() -
 196   slurp all arguments into one single text element - and one feature
 197   of in_line() - put trailing punctuation out of scope.
 198   Found in mount_nfs(8) and exports(5), search for "Appendix".
 199
 200 - in enclosures, mandoc sometimes fancies a bogus end of sentence
 201   reminded by jmc@  Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:13:39 +0059
 202
 203 ************************************************************************
 204 * formatting issues: gratuitous differences
 205 ************************************************************************
 206
 207 - .Rv (and probably .Ex) print different text if an `Nm' has been named
 208   or not (run a manual without `Nm blah' to see this).  I'm not sure
 209   that this exists in the wild, but it's still an error.
 210
 211 - In .Bl -bullet, the groff bullet is "+\b+\bo\bo", the mandoc bullet
 212   is just "o\bo".
 213   see for example OpenBSD ksh(1)
 214
 215 - The characters "|" and "\*(Ba" should never be bold,
 216   not even in the middle of a word, e.g. ".Cm b\*(Bac" in
 217   "mknod [-m mode] name b|c major minor"
 218   in OpenBSD ksh(1)
 219
 220 - A bogus .Pp between two .It must not produce a double blank line,
 221   see between -R and -r in OpenBSD rm(1), before "update" in mount(8),
 222   or in DIAGNOSTICS in init(8), or before "is always true" in ksh(1).
 223   The same happens with .Pp just before .El, see bgpd.conf(5).
 224   Also have `It' complain if `Pp' is invoked at certain times (not
 225   -compact?).
 226
 227 - .Pp between two .It in .Bl -column should produce one,
 228   not two blank lines, see e.g. login.conf(5).
 229   reported by jmc@  Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:04:58 +0059
 230
 231 - If the *first* line after .It is .Pp, break the line right after
 232   the tag, do not pad with space characters before breaking.
 233   See the description of the a, c, and i commands in sed(1).
 234
 235 - If the first line after .It is .D1, do not assert a blank line
 236   in between, see for example tmux(1).
 237   reported by nicm@  13 Jan 2011 00:18:57 +0000
 238
 239 - .Nx 1.0a
 240   should be "NetBSD 1.0A", not "NetBSD 1.0a",
 241   see OpenBSD ccdconfig(8).
 242
 243 - In .Bl -tag, if a tag exceeds the right margin and must be continued
 244   on the next line, it must be indented by -width, not width+1;
 245   see "rule block|pass" in OpenBSD ifconfig(8).
 246
 247 - When the -width string contains macros, the macros must be rendered
 248   before measuring the width, for example
 249     .Bl -tag -width ".Dv message"
 250   in magic(5), located in src/usr.bin/file, is the same
 251   as -width 7n, not -width 11n.
 252
 253 - The \& zero-width character counts as output.
 254   That is, when it is alone on a line between two .Pp,
 255   we want three blank lines, not two as in mandoc.
 256
 257 - When .Fn arguments exceed one output line, all but the first
 258   should be indented, see e.g. rpc(3);
 259   reported by jmc@ on discuss@  Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:48:33 +0100
 260
 261 - .Ns should work when called at the end of an input line, see
 262   the following code in vi(1):
 263     .It Xo
 264     .Op Ar line
 265     .Cm a Ns Op Cm ppend Ns
 266     .Op Cm !\&
 267     .Xc
 268     The input text is appended after the specified line.
 269
 270 - Header lines of excessive length:
 271   Port OpenBSD man_term.c rev. 1.25 to mdoc_term.c
 272   and document it in mdoc(7) and man(7) COMPATIBILITY
 273   found while talking to Chris Bennett
 274
 275 - In man(7), the sequence
 276     .HP
 277     one line of regular text
 278     .SH
 279   should not produce two blank lines before the .SH,
 280   see for example named-checkconf(8).
 281
 282 - In man(7), the sequence
 283     regular text
 284     .RS
 285     .IP
 286   should have a blank line between the text and the beginning of the
 287   indented paragraph, see for example sudo(1).
 288
 289 - In man(7), the sequence
 290     .SH HEADER
 291     <blank line>
 292     .PP
 293     regular text
 294   should not produce any blank lines between the header and the text,
 295   see for example rsync(1).
 296   Reported by naddy@  Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:45:42 +0200
 297
 298 - In man(7), the sequence
 299     regular text
 300     .PP
 301     .RS
 302     indented text
 303   should produce one blank line between the regular and indented texts,
 304   see for example rsync(1), and
 305     .RE
 306     <blank line>
 307     .PP
 308     .RS
 309   should produce two,not one blank lines.
 310   Reported by naddy@  Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:45:42 +0200
 311
 312 - In man(7), the sequence
 313     regular text
 314     .IP
 315     .IP "tag"
 316     indented text
 317   should produce one, not four blank lines between the regular text
 318   and the tag, see for example rsync(1).
 319   Likewise,
 320     regular text
 321     .IP
 322     indented text
 323   should produce one, not two blank lines in between, and
 324     regular text
 325     .IP
 326     .RS
 327     .IP tag
 328     indented text
 329   should produce one, not three blank lines.
 330   Reported by naddy@  Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:45:42 +0200
 331
 332 - At least sometimes, .sp is ignored right after .SH; see named.conf(5).
 333
 334 - trailing whitespace must be ignored even when followed by a font escape,
 335   see for example
 336     makes
 337     \fBdig \fR
 338     operate in batch mode
 339   in dig(1).
 340
 341 ************************************************************************
 342 * error reporting issues
 343 ************************************************************************
 344
 345 ************************************************************************
 346 * performance issues
 347 ************************************************************************
 348
 349 Several areas can be cleaned up to make mandoc even faster.  These are
 350
 351 - improve hashing mechanism for macros (quite important: performance)
 352
 353 - improve hashing mechanism for characters (not as important)
 354
 355 - the PDF file is HUGE: this can be reduced by using relative offsets
 356
 357 ************************************************************************
 358 * structural issues
 359 ************************************************************************
 360
 361 - Find better ways to prevent endless loops
 362   in roff(7) macro and string expansion.
 363
 364 - Finish cleanup of date handling.
 365   Decide which formats should be recognized where.
 366   Update both mdoc(7) and man(7) documentation.
 367   Triggered by  Tim van der Molen  Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:30:45 +0100