On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 07:58:42PM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > At 2025-10-27T04:15:57-0400, Thomas Dickey wrote: > > On Sun, Oct 26, 2025 at 10:26:27PM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > > What's wrong turns out to be straightforward, but not necessarily > > > easy to fix. > > > > > > The problem is use of the 'x' column modifier in tbl(1) tables. > > > Solaris 10 tbl rejects it and "tbl quits". > > > > > > Heirloom Doctools troff claims that 'x' is a GNU extension. It's > > > not. But GNU tbl is probably how most people came to know of it, > > > because I can't find a trace of it in any AT&T troff lineage except > > > DWB 3.3. It's not in Research Tenth Edition Unix tbl nor Plan 9 tbl > > > despite some cross-pollination that happened between DWB and > > > Research troffs. > > > > > > I'm updating groff's tbl(1) page to clarify this point. > > > > > > The question for ncurses is what to do about it. It'll take me some > > > time to ponder possibilities. > > > > If it's "only" the s/Lx/L/g, then that could be done with a configure > > check for the special case of antique nroff, and a substitution for > > make-sed.sh > > That's true. In my opinion 'x' is too nice a feature to do without > unless one has to, so it's worth complicating your CF_MAN_PAGES Autoconf > macro to take care of it. > > I have a little experience with Autoconf and m4 but it pales to yours. > If you'd prefer I worked on this, just say so. But if you'd prefer to > do it yourself, here's a macro for testing a tbl program for this > feature that's about as minimal as I can make it.
thanks - I can adapt this (use it as a starting point) > AC_DEFUN([TBL_SUPPORTS_X_COLUMN_MODIFIER], [ > tbl_supports_x_column_modifier=no > AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether 'tbl' program supports 'x' column modifier]) > if ! command -v tbl > /dev/null 2>&1 > then > AC_MSG_ERROR(['tbl' not available.], 1) > fi > if printf '.TS\nLx.\ntable cell\n.TE\n' | tbl > /dev/null 2>&1 > then > tbl_supports_x_column_modifier=yes > fi > AC_MSG_RESULT([$tbl_supports_x_column_modifier]) > ]) > > Regards, > Branden -- Thomas E. Dickey <[email protected]> https://invisible-island.net
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