[bug #63587] [troff] set .R register to maximum representable integer

[G. Branden Robinson]

URL:
  <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?63587>

                 Summary: [troff] set .R register to maximum representable
integer
                 Project: GNU troff
               Submitter: gbranden
               Submitted: Thu 29 Dec 2022 03:52:30 AM UTC
                Category: Core
                Severity: 1 - Wish
              Item Group: Feature change
                  Status: Postponed
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
         Planned Release: None


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Follow-up Comments:


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Date: Thu 29 Dec 2022 03:52:30 AM UTC By: G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
I have a few uses in mind for .R.  It is presently fixed at 10,000, which is
not presently a useful value for any particular purpose.  It just means
"large", and I've never seen any code that tests it for its historical purpose
(checking for register availability, a sort of crude memory capacity test).

1. We could advise users to employ it if they want to turn on centering or
right-alignment "forever".

2. We could advise users to use it, or turn our own macro packages toward it,
for expression of an "infinite" page length.

3. If done carefully, a user could avoid integer overflow errors before
undertaking arithmetic with large magnitudes.

4. It would be easy to determine the width of the underlying integer type from
within the roff language.  At present the language doesn't _really_ abstract
this, it simply lays down land mines that you blunder into if your arithmetic
gets too ambitious.







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