xref: /freebsd/contrib/mandoc/TODO (revision 405c3050f102b8c74782f0366c8ead927bd07b68)
1************************************************************************
2* Official mandoc TODO.
3* $Id: TODO,v 1.258 2018/08/06 14:16:30 schwarze Exp $
4************************************************************************
5
6Many issues are annotated for difficulty as follows:
7
8 - loc = locality of the issue
9    *    single file issue, affects file only, or very few
10    **   single module issue, affects several files of one module
11    ***  cross-module issue, significantly impacts multiple modules
12         and may require substantial changes to internal interfaces
13 - exist = difficulty of the existing code in this area
14    *    affected code is straightforward and easy to read and change
15    **   affected code is somewhat complex, but once you understand
16         the design, not particularly difficult to understand
17    ***  affected code uses a special, exceptionally tricky design
18 - algo = difficulty of the new algorithm to be written
19    *    the required logic and code is straightforward
20    **   the required logic is somewhat complex and needs a careful design
21    ***  the required logic is exceptionally tricky,
22         maybe an approach to solve that is not even known yet
23 - size = the amount of code to be written or changed
24    *    a small number of lines (at most 100, usually much less)
25    **   a considerable amount of code (several dozen to a few hundred)
26    ***  a large amount of code (many hundreds, maybe thousands)
27 - imp = importance of the issue
28    *    mostly for completeness
29    **   would be nice to have
30    ***  issue causes considerable inconvenience
31
32Obviously, as the issues have not been solved yet, these annotations
33are mere guesses, and some may be wrong.
34
35************************************************************************
36* missing features
37************************************************************************
38
39--- missing roff features ----------------------------------------------
40
41- .nop prints its arguments as text,
42  see groff(7) for an example
43
44- .ft CB selects constant-width bold font
45  see groff_out(7) for examples
46
47- \*(.T prints the device being used,
48  see groff_char(7) for an example
49
50- \[charNN], \[charNNN] prints a single-byte codepoint
51  see groff_char(7) for examples
52
53- .ad (adjust margins)
54  .ad l -- adjust left margin only (flush left)
55  .ad r -- adjust right margin only (flush right)
56  .ad c -- center text on line
57  .ad b -- adjust both margins (alias: .ad n)
58  .na   -- temporarily disable adjustment without changing the mode
59  .ad   -- re-enable adjustment without changing the mode
60  Adjustment mode is ignored while in no-fill mode (.nf).
61  loc ***  exist ***  algo **  size **  imp **  (parser reorg would help)
62
63- .fc (field control)
64  found by naddy@ in xloadimage(1)
65  loc **  exist ***  algo *  size *  imp *
66
67- .ns (no-space mode) occurs in xine-config(1)
68  when implementing this, also let .TH set it
69  reported by brad@  Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:45:23 -0500
70  loc ***  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp *
71
72- .while and .shift
73  found by jca@ in ratpoison(1)  Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:01:09 +0200
74  loc *  exist **  algo **  size **  imp **
75
76- \w'' improve width measurements
77  would not be very useful without an expression parser, see below
78  needed for Tcl_NewStringObj(3) via wiz@  Wed, 5 Mar 2014 22:27:43 +0100
79  loc **  exist ***  algo ***  size *  imp ***
80
81- \\ in high-level macro arguments
82  Currently, \\ is expanded in two situations:
83  1) macro and string definition (roff.c setstrn())
84  2) macro argument parsing (mandoc.c mandoc_getarg())
85  For user defined macros, the second happens in time because of ROFF_REPARSE.
86  But for standard high-level macros, it only happens after entering the
87  high level parsers, which is too late because the code doesn't get
88  back to roff.c roff_res() from that point.  Because this requires
89  distinguishing requests, user-defined macros and standard macros
90  on the roff_res() level, it is hard to solve without the parser reorg.
91  Found by naddy@ in devel/cutils cobfusc(1)  Mon, 16 Feb 2015 19:10:52 +0100
92  loc ***  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp *
93
94- check for missing roff escape sequences, implement those that are
95  trivial even if not usually appearing in manual pages, gracefully
96  ignore the non-trivial ones, document what they are supposed to do
97  and what mandoc does instead
98  loc *  exist **  algo *  size *  imp *
99
100--- missing mdoc features ----------------------------------------------
101
102- .Bl -column .Xo support is missing
103  ultimate goal:
104  restore .Xr and .Dv to
105  lib/libc/compat-43/sigvec.3
106  lib/libc/gen/signal.3
107  lib/libc/sys/sigaction.2
108  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size *  imp **
109
110- edge case: decide how to deal with blk_full bad nesting, e.g.
111  .Sh .Nm .Bk .Nm .Ek .Sh found by jmc@ in ssh-keygen(1)
112  from jmc@  Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:10:32 +0100
113  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp **
114
115- .Bd -centered implies -filled, not -unfilled, which is not
116  easy to implement; it requires code similar to .ce, which
117  we don't have either.
118  Besides, groff has bug causing text right *before* .Bd -centered
119  to be centered as well.
120  loc ***  exist ***  algo **  size **  imp **  (parser reorg would help)
121
122- .Bd -filled should not be the same as .Bd -ragged, but align both
123  the left and right margin.  In groff, it is implemented in terms
124  of .ad b, which we don't have either.  Found in cksum(1).
125  loc ***  exist ***  algo **  size **  imp **  (parser reorg would help)
126
127- implement blank `Bl -column', such as
128  .Bl -column
129  .It foo Ta bar
130  .El
131  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size *  imp *
132
133- explicitly disallow nested `Bl -column', which would clobber internal
134  flags defined for struct mdoc_macro
135  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp **
136
137- In .Bl -column .It, the end of the line probably has to be regarded
138  as an implicit .Ta, if there could be one, see the following mildly
139  ugly code from login.conf(5):
140    .Bl -column minpasswordlen program xetcxmotd
141    .It path Ta path Ta value of Dv _PATH_DEFPATH
142    .br
143    Default search path.
144  reported by Michal Mazurek <akfaew at jasminek dot net>
145  via jmc@ Thu, 7 Apr 2011 16:00:53 +0059
146  loc *  exist ***  algo **  size *  imp **
147
148- inside `.Bl -column' phrases, punctuation is handled like normal
149  text, e.g. `.Bl -column .It Fl x . Ta ...' should give "-x -."
150
151- inside `.Bl -column' phrases, TERMP_IGNDELIM handling by `Pf'
152  is not safe, e.g. `.Bl -column .It Pf a b .' gives "ab."
153  but should give "ab ."
154
155- prohibit `Nm' from having non-text HEAD children
156  (e.g., NetBSD mDNSShared/dns-sd.1)
157  (mdoc_html.c and mdoc_term.c `Nm' handlers can be slightly simplified)
158
159- support translated section names
160  e.g. x11/scrotwm scrotwm_es.1:21:2: error: NAME section must be first
161  that one uses NOMBRE because it is spanish...
162  deraadt tends to think that section-dependent macro behaviour
163  is a bad idea in the first place, so this may be irrelevant
164  loc **  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
165
166- When there is free text in the SYNOPSIS and that free text contains
167  the .Nm macro, groff somehow understands to treat the .Nm as an in-line
168  macro, while mandoc treats it as a block macro and breaks the line.
169  No idea how the logic for distinguishing in-line and block instances
170  should be, needs investigation.
171  uqs@  Thu, 2 Jun 2011 11:03:51 +0200
172  uqs@  Thu, 2 Jun 2011 11:33:35 +0200
173  loc *  exist **  algo ***  size *  imp **
174
175--- missing man features -----------------------------------------------
176
177- .SY and .YS,
178  used by many groff manual pages
179
180- preserve punctuation following .ME,
181  see ditroff(7) for an example
182
183- .TQ tagged paragraph continuation,
184  see groff_diff(7) for examples
185
186- groff_www(7) .MTO and .URL
187  These macros were used by the GNU grep(1) man page.
188  The groff_www(7) manual page itself uses them, too.
189  We should probably *not* add them to mandoc.
190  Just mentioning this here to keep track of the abuse.
191  Laura Morales <lauretas at mail dot com> 20 Apr 2018 07:33:02 +0200
192  loc **  exist *  algo *  size **  imp *
193
194--- missing tbl features -----------------------------------------------
195
196- the "s" layout column specifier is used for placement of data
197  into columns, but ignored during column width calculations
198  synaptics(4) found by tedu@  Mon, 17 Aug 2015 21:17:42 -0400
199  loc *  exist **  algo ***  size *  imp **
200
201- vertical centering in cells vertically spanned with ^
202  pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
203  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp *
204
205- support .ds requests inside tbl(7) code,
206  see tbl(1) for an example
207
208- support mdoc(7) and man(7) macros inside tbl(7) code;
209  probably requires the parser reorg and letting tbl(7)
210  use roff_node such that macro sets can mix;
211  informed by bapt@ that FreeBSD needs this: 3 Jan 2015 23:32:23 +0100
212  loc ***  exist **  algo ***  size **  imp ***
213
214- look at the POSIX manuals in the books/man-pages-posix port,
215  they use some unsupported tbl(7) features.
216  loc *  exist **  algo **  size **  imp ***
217
218- look what Joerg Schilling manual pages use
219  Thu, 19 Mar 2015 18:31:48 +0100
220
221- use Unicode U+2500 to U+256C for table borders
222  in tbl(7) -Tutf-8 output
223  suggested by bentley@  Tue, 14 Oct 2014 04:10:55 -0600
224  loc *  exist **  algo *  size *  imp **
225
226- implement horizontal and vertical alignment in HTML output
227  pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
228  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp ***
229
230- implement cell spanning in HTML output
231  pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
232  loc *  exist *  algo **  size **  imp **
233
234- implement table borders in HTML output
235  pali dot rohar at gmail dot com 16 Jul 2018 13:03:35 +0200
236  loc *  exist *  algo **  size **  imp **
237
238--- missing eqn features -----------------------------------------------
239
240- In a matrix, break the output line after each matrix line.
241  Found in the discussion at CDBUG 2015.
242  Suggested by Avi Weinstock.
243  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp **
244
245- The "size" keyword is parsed, but ignored by the formatter.
246  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp *
247
248- The spacing characters `~', `^', and tab are currently ignored,
249  see User's Guide (Second Edition) page 2 section 4.
250  loc *  exist *  algo **  size *  imp **
251
252- Mark and lineup are parsed and ignored,
253  see User's Guide (Second Edition) page 5 section 15.
254  loc **  exist **  algo **  size **  imp **
255
256- GNU eqn converts some operators to special characters, for example,
257  input HYPHEN-MINUS becomes output \(mi, unless it is part of a
258  quoted word.  mandoc(1) only does this when the operator is
259  surrounded by blanks, not when it is part of an unquoted word.
260  Also, check whether there are more such cases (e.g., +?).
261  reported by bentley@  20 Jun 2017 02:04:29 -0600
262  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp *
263
264- Primes, opprime, and '
265  bentley@  Thu, 13 Jul 2017 23:14:20 -0600
266
267--- missing misc features ----------------------------------------------
268
269- man -ks 1,8 route; kn@ Jul 13, 2018 orally
270
271- italic correction (\/) in PostScript mode
272  Werner LEMBERG on groff at gnu dot org  Sun, 10 Nov 2013 12:47:46
273  loc **  exist **  algo *  size *  imp *
274
275- change the default PAGER to more -Es and use the pager
276  even for apropos title line output; req by bapt@
277  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp ***
278
279- clean up escape sequence handling, creating three classes:
280  (1) fully implemented, or parsed and ignored without loss of content
281  (2) unimplemented, potentially causing loss of content
282      or serious mangling of formatting (e.g. \n) -> ERROR
283      see textproc/mgdiff(1) for nice examples
284  (3) undefined, just output the character -> perhaps WARNING
285  loc ***  exist **  algo **  size **  imp *** (parser reorg helps)
286
287- kettenis wants base roff, ms, and me  Fri, 1 Jan 2010 22:13:15 +0100 (CET)
288  loc **  exist **  algo **  size ***  imp *
289
290--- compatibility checks -----------------------------------------------
291
292- is .Bk implemented correctly in modern groff?
293  sobrado@  Tue, 19 Apr 2011 22:12:55 +0200
294
295- compare output to Heirloom roff, Solaris roff, and
296  http://repo.or.cz/w/neatroff.git  http://litcave.rudi.ir/
297
298- look at AT&T DWB http://www2.research.att.com/sw/download
299  Carsten Kunze <carsten dot kunze at arcor dot de> has patches
300  Mon, 4 Aug 2014 17:01:28 +0200
301  ported version: https://github.com/n-t-roff/DWB3.3
302  Carsten Kunze  Wed, 22 Apr 2015 11:21:43 +0200
303
304- look at pages generated from reStructeredText, e.g. devel/mercurial hg(1)
305  These are a weird mixture of man(7) and custom autogenerated low-level
306  roff stuff.  Figure out to what extent we can cope.
307  For details, see http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
308  noted by stsp@  Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:17:55 +0200
309  reminded by nicm@  Mon, 3 May 2010 09:52:41 +0100
310
311- look at pages generated from ronn(1) github.com/rtomayko/ronn
312  (based on markdown)
313
314- look at pages generated from Texinfo source by yat2m, e.g. security/gnupg
315  First impression is not that bad.
316
317- look at pages generated by pandoc; see
318  https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/blob/master/src/Text/Pandoc/Writers/Man.hs
319  porting planned by kili@  Thu, 19 Jun 2014 19:46:28 +0200
320
321- check compatibility with Plan9:
322  http://swtch.com/usr/local/plan9/tmac/tmac.an
323  http://swtch.com/plan9port/man/man7/man.html
324  "Anthony J. Bentley" <anthonyjbentley@gmail.com> 28 Dec 2010 21:58:40 -0700
325
326- check compatibility with COHERENT troff:
327  http://www.nesssoftware.com/home/mwc/source.php
328
329- check compatibility with the man(7) formatter
330  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rofl0r/hardcore-utils/master/man.c
331
332- check compatibility with
333  http://ikiwiki.info/plugins/contrib/mandoc/
334  https://github.com/schmonz/ikiwiki/compare/mandoc
335  Amitai Schlair  Mon, 19 May 2014 14:05:53 -0400
336
337- check features of the Slackware man.conf(5) format
338  Carsten Kunze  Wed, 11 Mar 2015 17:57:24 +0100
339
340************************************************************************
341* formatting issues: ugly output
342************************************************************************
343
344- .UR can nest inside .TP,
345  see roff(7) for examples
346
347- revisit empty in-line macros
348  look at the difference between "Em x Em ." and "Sq x Em ."
349  Carsten Kunze  Fri, 12 Dec 2014 00:15:41 +0100
350  loc *** exist *** algo *** size * imp **
351
352- a column list with blank `Ta' cells triggers a spurious
353  start-with-whitespace printing of a newline
354
355- In .Bl -column, .It a<tab>"b<tab>c"
356  shows the quotes in groff, but not in mandoc
357  loc * exist *** algo ** size * imp **
358
359- In .Bl -column,
360  .It Em Authentication<tab>Key Length
361  ought to render "Key Length" with emphasis, too,
362  see OpenBSD iked.conf(5).
363  reported again Nicolas Joly via wiz@ Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:20:00 +0200
364  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp ***
365
366- empty phrases in .Bl column produce too few blanks
367  try e.g. .Bl -column It Ta Ta
368  reported by millert Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:13:46 -0400
369  loc *  exist ***  algo ***  size *  imp **
370
371- .%T can have trailing punctuation.  Currently, it puts the trailing
372  punctuation into a trailing MDOC_TEXT element inside its own scope.
373  That element should rather be outside its scope, such that the
374  punctuation does not get underlines.  This is not trivial to
375  implement because .%T then needs some features of in_line_eoln() -
376  slurp all arguments into one single text element - and one feature
377  of in_line() - put trailing punctuation out of scope.
378  Found in mount_nfs(8) and exports(5), search for "Appendix".
379  loc **  exist **  algo ***  size *  imp **
380
381- Trailing punctuation after .%T triggers EOS spacing, at least
382  outside .Rs (eek!).  Simply setting ARGSFL_DELIM for .%T is not
383  the right solution, it sends mandoc into an endless loop.
384  reported by Nicolas Joly  Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:49:54 +0100
385  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
386
387- global variables in the SYNOPSIS of section 3 pages
388  .Vt vs .Vt/.Va vs .Ft/.Va vs .Ft/.Fa ...
389  from kristaps@  Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:13:32 +0200
390
391- implicit whitespace around inline equations
392  example code:  where '$times$' denotes matrix multiplication
393  must not have an HTML line break, nor a blank, before <math>
394  partial solution: html.c {"math", HTML_NLINSIDE | HTML_INDENT},
395  bentley@  Thu, 13 Jul 2017 19:00:59 -0600
396
397- in enclosures, mandoc sometimes fancies a bogus end of sentence
398  reminded by jmc@  Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:13:39 +0059
399  loc *  exist **  algo ***  size *  imp ***
400
401- a line starting with "\fB something" counts as starting with whitespace
402  and triggers a line break; found in audio/normalize-mp3(1)
403  loc **  exist *  algo **  size *  imp **
404
405- formatting /usr/local/man/man1/latex2man.1 with groff and mandoc
406  reveals lots of bugs both in groff and mandoc...
407  reported by bentley@  Wed, 22 May 2013 23:49:30 -0600
408
409--- PostScript and PDF issues ------------------------------------------
410
411- PDF output doesn't use a monospaced font for .Bd -literal
412  Example: "mandoc -Tpdf afterboot.8 > output.pdf && pdfviewer output.pdf".
413  Search the text "Routing tables".
414  Also check what PostScript mode does when fixing this.
415  reported by juanfra@ Wed, 04 Jun 2014 21:44:58 +0200
416  instructions from juanfra@  Wed, 11 Jun 2014 02:21:01 +0200
417    add a new <</Type /Font>> block to the PDF files with /BaseFont /Courier
418    and change the /Name from /F0 to the new font (/F5 (?)).
419  re-reported by tb@ Mon, 16 Mar 2015 16:47:21 +0100
420  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
421
422--- HTML issues --------------------------------------------------------
423
424- wrap Sh and Ss content into <div>
425  Laura Morales <lauretas at mail dot com> 21 Apr 2018 18:10:48 +0200
426  (Evaluate whether this is really useful and has no adverse
427   side effects before implementing; if it is possible,
428   it does seem cleaner.)
429  loc **  exist **  algo *  size *  imp ***
430
431- format ".IP *" etc. as <ul> rather than <dl>
432  https://github.com/Debian/debiman/issues/67
433  loc ** exist ** algo ** size * imp ***
434
435- .Bf at the beginning of a paragraph inserts a bogus 1ex horizontal
436  space, see for example random(3).  Introduced in
437  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/cgi-bin/cvsweb/mdoc_html.c.diff?r1=1.91&r2=1.92
438  reported by deraadt@ Mon, 28 Sep 2015 20:14:13 -0600 (MDT)
439  loc **  exist **  algo **  size *  imp *
440
441- jsg on icb, Nov 3, 2014:
442  try to guess Xr in man(7) for hyperlinking
443  and render them with <a class="Xr" href=...>
444  https://github.com/Debian/debiman/issues/15
445  loc *  exist *  algo **  size **  imp **
446
447- The tables used to render the three-part page headers actually force
448  the width of the <body> to the max-width given for <html>.
449  Not yet sure how to fix that...
450  Observed by an Anonymous Coward on undeadly.org:
451  http://undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20140925064244&pid=1
452  loc *  exist *  algo **  size *  imp ***
453
454- generate <img> tags in HTML
455  idea from florian@  Tue, 7 Apr 2015 00:26:28 +0000
456  may be possible to implement with .Lk img://something.png alt_text
457
458- check https://github.com/trentm/mdocml
459
460************************************************************************
461* formatting issues: gratuitous differences
462************************************************************************
463
464- .Fn reopens a new scope after punctuation in mandoc,
465  but closes its scope for good in groff.
466  Do we want to change mandoc or groff?
467  Steffen Nurpmeso  Sat, 08 Nov 2014 13:34:59 +0100
468  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
469
470- In .Bl -enum -width 0n, groff continues one the same line after
471  the number, mandoc breaks the line.
472  mail to kristaps@  Mon, 20 Jul 2009 02:21:39 +0200
473  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
474
475- .Pp between two .It in .Bl -column should produce one,
476  not two blank lines, see e.g. login.conf(5).
477  reported by jmc@  Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:04:58 +0059
478  reported again by sthen@  Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:09:39 +0000 (UTC)
479  loc *  exist ***  algo **  size *  imp **
480
481- If the *first* line after .It is .Pp, break the line right after
482  the tag, do not pad with space characters before breaking.
483  See the description of the a, c, and i commands in sed(1).
484  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
485
486- If the first line after .It is .D1, do not assert a blank line
487  in between, see for example tmux(1).
488  reported by nicm@  13 Jan 2011 00:18:57 +0000
489  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
490
491- Trailing punctuation after .It should trigger EOS spacing.
492  reported by Nicolas Joly  Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:49:54 +0100
493  Probably, this should be fixed somewhere in termp_it_pre(), not sure.
494  loc *  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
495
496- When the -width string contains macros, the macros must be rendered
497  before measuring the width, for example
498    .Bl -tag -width ".Dv message"
499  in magic(5), located in src/usr.bin/file, is the same
500  as -width 7n, not -width 11n.
501  The same applies to .Bl -column column widths;
502  reported again by Nicolas Joly Thu, 1 Mar 2012 13:41:26 +0100 via wiz@ 5 Mar
503  reported again by Franco Fichtner Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:02:28 +0200
504  reported again by Bruce Evans Fri, 17 Feb 2017 21:22:44 +0100 via bapt@
505  loc ***  exist ***  algo ***  size **  imp ***
506  An easy partial fix would be to just skip the first word if it starts
507  with a dot, including any following white space, when measuring.
508  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp ***
509
510- The \& zero-width character counts as output.
511  That is, when it is alone on a line between two .Pp,
512  we want three blank lines, not two as in mandoc.
513  loc **  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
514
515- Sequences of multiple man(7) paragraphs (.PP, .IP) interspersed
516  with .ps and .nf/.fi produce execessive blank lines, see libJudy
517  and graphics/dcmtk.  The parser reorg may help with this.
518
519- trailing whitespace must be ignored even when followed by a font escape,
520  see for example
521    makes
522    \fBdig \fR
523    operate in batch mode
524  in dig(1).
525  loc **  exist **  algo **  size *  imp **
526
527************************************************************************
528* warning issues
529************************************************************************
530
531- warn about duplicate .Sh/.Ss heads
532  gre(4): Rename duplicate sections 20 Apr 2018 15:27:33 +0200
533  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp **
534
535- style message about macros inside .Bd -literal and .Dl, in particular
536  font changing macros like .Cm, .Ar, .Fa (from the mdoclint TODO)
537
538- style message about mismatches between the section number in the
539  file name (if it is known) and the section number in .Dt
540  (from the mdoclint TODO)
541
542- style message about NULL without .Dv (from the mdoclint TODO)
543
544- style message about error constants without .Er (from the mdoclint TODO)
545
546- warn when .Sh or .Ss contain other macros
547  Steffen Nurpmeso, savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?45034
548  loc *  exist *  algo *  size *  imp **
549
550- style message about violations of the convention
551  .An name Aq Mt localpart@domain in AUTHORS (from the mdoclint TODO)
552
553- warn about attempts to call non-callable macros
554  Steffen Nurpmeso  Tue, 11 Nov 2014 22:55:16 +0100
555  Note that formatting is inconsistent in groff.
556  .Fn Po prints "Po()", .Ar Sh prints "file ..." and no "Sh".
557  Relatively hard because the relevant code is scattered
558  all over mdoc_macro.c and all subtly different.
559  loc **  exist **  algo **  size **  imp **
560
561- style message about suspicious uses of - vs. \- vs. \(mi
562  e.g. -1 is likely wrong (from the mdoclint TODO)
563
564- warn about punctuation - e.g. ',' and ';' - at the beginning
565  of a text line, if it is likely intended to follow the preceding
566  output without intervening whitespace, in particular after a
567  macro line (from the mdoclint TODO)
568
569- mandoc_special does not really check the escape sequence,
570  but just the overall format
571  loc **  exist **  algo ***  size **  imp **
572
573- makewhatis -p complains about language subdirectories:
574  /usr/local/man//ru: Unknown directory part
575
576
577************************************************************************
578* documentation issues
579************************************************************************
580
581- dashes, hyphens, and minus signs in manual pages
582  jmc@ Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:19:27 +0000
583
584- mark macros as: page structure domain, manual domain, general text domain
585  is this useful?
586
587- mention /usr/share/misc/mdoc.template in mdoc(7)?
588
589- Is all the content from http://www.std.com/obi/BSD/doc/usd/28.tbl/tbl
590  covered in tbl(7)?
591
592************************************************************************
593* performance issues
594************************************************************************
595
596- the PDF file is HUGE: this can be reduced by using relative offsets
597
598************************************************************************
599* structural issues
600************************************************************************
601
602- POSIX says in the documentation of sysconf(3) that PATH_MAX
603  is allowed to be so large that it is a bad idea to use it
604  for sizing static buffers.  So use dynamic buffers throughout.
605  See the file test-PATH_MAX.c for details.
606  Found by Aaron M. Ucko in the GNU Hurd via Bdale Garbee,
607  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=829624
608
609- We use the input line number at several places to distinguish
610  same-line from different-line input.  That plainly doesn't work
611  with user-defined macros, leading to random breakage.
612
613- Is it possible to further simplify ENDBODY_SPACE?
614
615- Find better ways to prevent endless loops
616  in roff(7) macro and string expansion.
617
618- make buffers for parsing functions const
619  christos@ via wiz@  Fri, 18 Dec 2015 17:10:01 +0100
620
621- struct mparse refactoring
622  Steffen Nurpmeso  Thu, 04 Sep 2014 12:50:00 +0200
623
624************************************************************************
625* CGI issues
626************************************************************************
627
628 - Enable HTTP compression by detecting gzip encoding and filtering
629   output through libz.
630 - Privilege separation (see OpenSSH).
631 - Enable caching support via HTTP 304 and If-Modified-Since.
632 - Have Mac OSX systems automatically disable -static compilation of the
633   CGI: -static isn't supported.
634
635************************************************************************
636* to improve in the groff_mdoc(7) macros
637************************************************************************
638
639- .Cd # arch1, arch2 in section 4 pages:
640  find better way to indicate multiple architectures, maybe:
641  allow .Dt vgafb 4 "macppc sparc64"
642  already shown as "Device Drivers Manual (macppc sparc64)"
643  for apropos, make that "vgafb(4) - macppc # sparc64" instead of "- all"
644  groff can be made to show multiple arches, too, but it is
645  tedious to do the string parsing in roff code...
646  jmc@ 23 Apr 2018 07:24:52 +0100 [man for vgafb(4)...]
647  loc **  exist **  algo *  size *  imp ***
648
649- use uname(1) to set doc-default-operating-system at install time
650  tobimensch  Mon, 1 Dec 2014 00:25:07 +0100
651
652- apostrophe (39), circumflex (94), grave (96), tilde (126)
653  in manuals: \(aq, \(ha, \`, \(ti
654  Re: [Groff] ASCII Minus Sign in man Pages.
655  bentley@ 26 Apr 2017 10:02:06 -0600
656  Do we need to fix existing manuals?
657  Do we need to fix the definition of the mdoc(7) language?
658