How to put comments in nroff/troff s - (nf)

[Larry West]

Another oft-used (and documented) way to make block-comments in
nroff/troff is by using the ".ig" (ignore) macro.   This can be
used as below [indented by one tab for this example only, of
course]:

	.ig
		This is a block comment in nroff/troff.   See
		section 20 (miscellaneous) of the reference manual
		(``Nroff/Troff User's Manual'', by Ossanna of Bell).
		Nothing in here should have any effect upon
		the document.   I indent [again] out of personal
		preference.    Terminate with double-dot:
	..

or:

	.ig EE
		You can specify that you want to end the comment
		with something other than "..", as in:
	.EE

I don't know whether there is a conflict in naming here -- e.g.,
whether a ".EE" macro would be lost in the previous example.   I'd
assume the worst.

And, as mentioned before, there is this form of block-comments:

	'	\"	The use of the "'" rather than "." is
	'	\"	discussed in the reference manual, section 1.1.
	'	\"	This is really a case of ignoring an unknown
	'	\"	macro -- the``\"'' comments-out the remainder
	'	\"	of the line, guaranteeing non-recognition.

It is often dangerous to use the ``\"'' comment on a real line --
in particular, using it on the same line as a ".." will cause problems.
For example, don't end a macro like this:
	.de FU
	'bp
	Man Chew?
	..	\" end of "FU" 		<<-- won't work!

	-- Larry West, UC San Diego, Institute for Cognitive Science
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