> a request that would print its argument with all hyphenation points visible
> ...
> it requires a contrivance to discover them
The second bit of the quote seems to answer the first: there's
no need for such a request because the function can be
accomplished fairly easily.
But I have no perspective on what uses drove the suggestion.
What I see as the typical use is a nonce question about a
single word. That is trivially handled by
groff -a
.ll 1u
recapitulation
The result is marrred with "can't break line" diagnostics,
but it's quick and intelligible.
Another use would be to consruct hyphenations for a whole
list of words. That would be a rare enough activity to justify
building a "contrivance" for the job per the old Unix adage:
combine tools that do one thing well (in preference to
festooning existing tools with ad hoc features).
Have I overlooked more compelling uses?
Doug
