minor tweaks:

[mandoc.git] / mdoc.7

diff --git a/mdoc.7 b/mdoc.7
index 867fdc42cb9b12c3c2c38cdd7af7c0d1c59fc6cd..ffebb97346546b64378f92c320e563f7b5f7de71 100644 (file)
--- a/mdoc.7
+++ b/mdoc.7
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.\"    $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.164 2010/11/29 13:02:47 kristaps Exp $
+.\"    $Id: mdoc.7,v 1.171 2010/12/22 23:53:55 schwarze Exp $
 .\"
 .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
 .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 .\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: November 29 2010 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: December 22 2010 $
 .Dt MDOC 7
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -604,20 +604,21 @@ closes it out.
 .Pp
 The
 .Em Callable
-column indicates that the macro may be called subsequent to the initial
-line-macro.
-If a macro is not callable, then its invocation after the initial line
-macro is interpreted as opaque text, such that
+column indicates that the macro may also be called by passing its name
+as an argument to another macro.
+If a macro is not callable but its name appears as an argument
+to another macro, it is interpreted as opaque text.
+For example,
 .Sq \&.Fl \&Sh
 produces
 .Sq Fl \&Sh .
 .Pp
 The
 .Em Parsed
-column indicates whether the macro may be followed by further
-(ostensibly callable) macros.
-If a macro is not parsed, subsequent macro invocations on the line
-will be interpreted as opaque text.
+column indicates whether the macro may call other macros by receiving
+their names as arguments.
+If a macro is not parsed but the name of another macro appears
+as an argument, it is interpreted as opaque text.
 .Pp
 The
 .Em Scope
@@ -1076,8 +1077,7 @@ implementations render it poorly.
 Left- and right-justify the block.
 .It Fl literal
 Do not justify the block at all.
-Preserve white space and newlines as they appear in the input, including
-if it follows a macro.
+Preserve white space as it appears in the input.
 .It Fl ragged
 Only left-justify the block.
 .It Fl unfilled
@@ -1201,7 +1201,7 @@ Be careful in using over-long lines within a keep block!
 Doing so will clobber the right margin.
 .Ss \&Bl
 Begin a list.
-Lists consist of items started by the
+Lists consist of items specified using the
 .Sx \&It
 macro, containing a head or a body or both.
 The list syntax is as follows:
@@ -2124,9 +2124,6 @@ Examples:
 Format a
 .Dq mailto:
 hyperlink.
-If an argument is not provided, the string
-.Dq \(ti
-is used as a default.
 Its syntax is as follows:
 .Pp
 .D1 Pf \. Sx \&Mt Cm address
@@ -2308,6 +2305,9 @@ and
 .Sx \&Ux .
 .Ss \&Pa
 A file-system path.
+If an argument is not provided, the string
+.Dq \(ti
+is used as a default.
 .Pp
 Examples:
 .D1 \&.Pa /usr/bin/mandoc
@@ -2662,9 +2662,13 @@ and
 Close a scope opened by
 .Sx \&Xo .
 .Ss \&Xo
-Open an extension scope.
-This macro originally existed to extend the 9-argument limit of troff;
-since this limit has been lifted, the macro has been deprecated.
+Extend the header of an
+.Sx \&It
+macro or the body of a partial-implicit block macro
+beyond the end of the input line.
+This macro originally existed to work around the 9-argument limit
+of historic
+.Xr roff 7 .
 .Ss \&Xr
 Link to another manual
 .Pq Qq cross-reference .
@@ -2718,10 +2722,10 @@ troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff
 .Pq Qq groff .
 The term
 .Qq historic groff
-refers to groff versions before the
+refers to groff versions before 1.17,
+which featured a significant update of the
 .Pa doc.tmac
-file re-write
-.Pq somewhere between 1.15 and 1.19 .
+file.
 .Pp
 Heirloom troff, the other significant troff implementation accepting
 \-mdoc, is similar to historic groff.
@@ -2731,6 +2735,16 @@ The following problematic behaviour is found in groff:
 .Pp
 .Bl -dash -compact
 .It
+Display macros
+.Po
+.Sx \&Bd ,
+.Sx \&Dl ,
+and
+.Sx \&D1
+.Pc
+may not be nested.
+\*[hist]
+.It
 .Sx \&At
 with unknown arguments produces no output at all.
 \*[hist]
@@ -2812,6 +2826,11 @@ can only be called by other macros, but not at the beginning of a line.
 .Sx \&%C
 is not implemented.
 .It
+Historic groff only allows up to eight or nine arguments per macro input
+line, depending on the exact situation.
+Providing more arguments causes garbled output.
+The number of arguments on one input line is not limited with mandoc.
+.It
 Historic groff has many un-callable macros.
 Most of these (excluding some block-level macros) are callable
 in new groff and mandoc.