[bug #63176] [me] After column-count changes, -me might place running text on page below footnote

[G. Branden Robinson]

Follow-up Comment #7, bug #63176 (project groff):


[comment #5 comment #5:]
> [comment #4 comment #4:]
> > This seems tricky enough that I'm inclined to simply add
> > another diagnostic message: if there are pending footnotes
> > when the number of columns is changes, yell about it.
> 
> There already _is_ an error message, but--as it's not terribly illuminating
of the problem--something more accurate can't hurt.

The diagnostic I have in mind is thrown from different places, so it's
distinguishable.  But it may help the user track down the issue and decide if
it's something they care about nonetheless.

Here's a proposed patch.


diff --git a/tmac/e.tmac b/tmac/e.tmac
index f00711577..88f966fc8 100644
--- a/tmac/e.tmac
+++ b/tmac/e.tmac
@@ -969,6 +969,7 @@
 .
 .
 .de 2c                 \" *** double columned output
+.do if d |f .do @err changing columnation with footnote pending
 .br
 .if \\n($m>1 \
 .      1c\"                            \" revert to 1c if already 2c
@@ -986,6 +987,7 @@
 ..
 .
 .de 1c                 \" *** single columned output
+.do if d |f .do @err changing columnation with footnote pending
 .br
 .nr $c 1
 .nr $m 1


And here's the output when I run "the old switcheroo" in its 4
configurations.


$ tgu -me EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me -z
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:8: changing columnation with footnote
pending
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:28: writing 2-column footnote in
1-column layout
$ tgu -rB1 -me EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me -z
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:8: changing columnation with footnote
pending
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:28: writing 2-column footnote in
1-column layout
$ tgu -rA1 -me EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me -z
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:8: changing columnation with footnote
pending
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:33: changing columnation with
footnote pending
$ tgu -rA1 -rB1 -me EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me -z
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:8: changing columnation with footnote
pending
e.tmac:EXPERIMENTS/the-old-switcheroo.me:33: changing columnation with
footnote pending


These new diagnostics get thrown at different points in the input, which I
want to argue will help the document author locate the spots that matter.

What do you think of these?

Hypothetically, if we have a register that means "I want footnote in 1 column
at the page foot no matter how many columns are otherwise in the running
text", that would suppress the diagnostic in the `1c` macro.  But 2 conditions
would need to attach: (a) this is the desired behavior, and (b) we're
switching to 1c mode _because_ we're outputting footnotes.  The latter is an
additional bit of internal state that would need to be maintained.
 
> Sure, at this point I expect any substantive change to be 1.24 at the
earliest, and maybe later, since there are certainly higher priority bugs out
there.  I've retooled my own macros to sidestep this issue, so I have no
personal stake in this being fixed; just want to get it documented.

Fingers crossed!


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