runtime(doc): Update [gnt]roff information
Content:
* Refer to the formatter as "GNU troff". Strictly, "groff" refers to
several things.[1] Since the context is the editing of input to the
formatter, GNU's troff program is most relevant choice.
* Refer to groff as distributions' default "typesetting" rather than
"text processing" package. Many text processing tools exist, and some
distributions (Alpine Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD) have replaced groff with
mandoc[2] as their man page formatter.
* Mention that Plan 9 still ships an AT&T-derived troff; they even
maintain it.[3]
* Correct explanation of traditional `yr` register (1). `\n(yr` is not
a request, but an escape sequence.[4]
* Correct explanation of traditional `yr` register (2). This register
has not interpolated a "2-digit year" since the year 2000; it now
interpolates a 3-digit one, because AT&T troff designed the `yr`
register with a Y2K bug in it.[5]
* Fix scrambled terminology. The phrase "macro request" confuses two
separate things: macros and requests.[6] Say instead "font, request,
register, macro, and string names"; these are the formatter object
types that people writing groff documents most often use.
* Refer to "groff's mm package" instead of "GNU mm". Strictly, this
package is in groff's "contrib" area, which implies that it's not
official GNU product. (To be fair, after shipping with groff for over
34 years,[7] I'm not sure how much distinction anyone perceives.)
* Motivate the newly added advice preferring macro package facilities
for paragraphing; this issue is distinct from aiding sentence boundary
detection, which until recently[8] was the only advice offered here.
Style:
* Condense introductory paragraphs.
* Refer to "language syntax" rather than "language primitives".
* Use slightly more idiomatic English.
While these revisions convey more information, they leave the line count
unchanged. I'll try to stop fooling with this material now.
Notes:
[1] https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/man/groff.7.man?h=1.24.0.rc1#n303
[2] https://mandoc.bsd.lv/
[3] https://github.com/9fans/plan9port/pull/738
https://github.com/9front/9front/commit/
4f3a4d8b3da7e7f38b4bc392524944f6f9ccf21f
[4] https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html.node/Formatter-Instructions.html
https://github.com/mamccollum/troff-resources/blob/main/cstr-54.pdf
[5] Tellingly, groff added the `year` register in its 1.16 release,
dated 2000-05-23.
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/NEWS?h=1.24.0.rc1#n3650
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/ChangeLog.116?h=1.24.0.rc1#n261
[6] https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html.node/Requests-and-Macros.html
https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html.node/groff.html_fot.html#FOOT26
[7] https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/NEWS?h=1.24.0.rc1#n4192
https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/ChangeLog.old?h=1.24.0.rc1#n2714
[8] https://github.com/vim/vim/commit/
638bbc57c151b0360d953e1e4ad372e3c9f0d3ce
closes: #19221
Signed-off-by: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brabandt <cb@256bit.org>