Authentication-Results: minnie.tuhs.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=dartmouth.edu header.i=@dartmouth.edu header.b="ghSMkvsR"; dkim-atps=neutral From: M Douglas McIlroy Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2021 21:47:18 -0500 To: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org Subject: [TUHS] Proliferation of options is great simplification of pipes, really? Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" > I can imagine a simple perl (or python or whatever) script that would run > through groff input [and] determine which preprocessors are actually > needed ... Brian imagined such and implemented it way back when. Though I used it, I've forgotten its name. One probably could have fooled it by tricks like calling pic only in a .so file and perhaps renaming .so. But I never heard of it failing in real life. It does impose an extra pass over the input, but may well save a pass compared to the defensive groff -pet that I often use or to the rerun necessary when I forget to mention some or all of the filters.