[bug #51312] [PATCH] put \& between spaces and dots in *roff documents

[G. Branden Robinson]

Update of bug #51312 (project groff):

                  Status:                    None => In Progress            
             Assigned to:                    None => gbranden               
                 Summary: [Patch] Protect full stop (.) => [PATCH] put \&
between spaces and dots in *roff documents

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Follow-up Comment #1:

Some of these are good ideas, and some are not.

I have three observations.

1. The addition of non-printing input breaks before dots in _unfilled_ text or
in control lines (such as macro calls) is unnecessary and noisy.  In filled
text, they are worthwhile, and a well-taken point of defensive programming.

2. For the remaining cases of good practice, we shouldn't just make our own
documents robust, but offer the same advice to the user.

3. The exact same logic applies to the no-break control character, so that
should be done as well.  Fortunately, I expect few applicable occasions in
groff's documentary corpus: words that begin with an apostrophe are rare in
English, especially in formal writing, though I suppose slap-happy man page
writers who refuse to learn anything in the groff_char(7) page will have been
bitten many times.

I won't be applying the patch as-is, as I have no hope of it being less work
compared to my own grepping and sedding.  Nearly every file in the patch has
seen immense amounts of revision in the four and a half years since this
ticket was filed.

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