-.\" $Id: man.7,v 1.58 2010/03/25 07:28:16 kristaps Exp $
+.\" $Id: man.7,v 1.61 2010/04/05 07:25:23 kristaps Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@kth.se>
.\"
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: March 25 2010 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: April 5 2010 $
.Dt MAN 7
.Os
.
Macros are one to three three characters in length and begin with a
control character ,
.Sq \&. ,
-at the beginning of the line. An arbitrary amount of whitespace may
-sit between the control character and the macro name. Thus, the
-following are equivalent:
+at the beginning of the line. The
+.Sq \(aq
+macro control character is also accepted. An arbitrary amount of
+whitespace (spaces or tabs) may sit between the control character and
+the macro name. Thus, the following are equivalent:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
\&.PP
\&.\ \ \ PP
raised (unless in the case of
.Sx \&br ,
.Sx \&sp ,
-.Sx \&Sp ,
or
.Sx \&na ) .
.Pp
implementations of the
.Nm
language.
+.
.Pp
.Bl -dash -compact
.It
In quoted literals, GNU troff allowed pair-wise double-quotes to produce
a standalone double-quote in formatted output. It is not known whether
this behaviour is exhibited by other formatters.
+.
.It
Blocks of whitespace are stripped from macro and free-form text lines
(except when in literal mode) in mandoc. This is not the case for GNU
troff: for maximum portability, whitespace sensitive blocks should be
enclosed in literal contexts.
+.
.It
The
.Sx \&sp
macro does not accept negative values in mandoc. In GNU troff, this
would result in strange behaviour.
+.
+.It
+The
+.Sq \(aq
+macro control character, in GNU troff (and prior troffs) suppresses a
+newline before macro output; in mandoc, it is an alias for the standard
+.Sq \&.
+control character.
.El
.
.