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Don't abuse mdoc(7) Tn for structs #260

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The rest of the code variably uses Ft/Vt

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mdoc(7) says that Tn is a "Trade or type name", which is what these are. Vt is a "Variable type (Fortran only)", which these are not. Why change them?

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.Tn has never been used for "type names", that's a documentation blunder backsolved from the macro name. The correct usage corresponds to the correct documentation: "Tn macro - Trade Name Macro" (4.4BSD tmac/doc) — i.e. you use it to get a smaller font, most often for an acronym.
No clue where you're getting the Fortran thing.

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dang commented Oct 27, 2022

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nabijaczleweli commented Oct 27, 2022

Great. That text appeared spontaneously in 1999 and got killed from the groff distribution in 2001, because it has no basis in fact, instead replaced with the modern-day-equivalent "The ‘.Vt’ macro may be used whenever a type is referenced."

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dang commented Oct 27, 2022

Hmm... Groff doesn't seem to document either tn or vt. Can you point me to the docs for these? Not that it matters much, since the man pages for ntirpc are largely unmaintained, and not installed.

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https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/groff/groff_mdoc.7.en.html#Trade_Names_(or_Acronyms_and_Type_Names) (but do note that groff's mdoc(7) descends from the 4.4BSD one and so inherits the "type names" backsolve) and https://manpages.debian.org/bullseye/mandoc/mandoc_mdoc.7.en.html#Tn

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