===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/mandoc/mdoc.7,v
retrieving revision 1.176
retrieving revision 1.181
diff -u -p -r1.176 -r1.181
--- mandoc/mdoc.7	2011/01/22 14:05:33	1.176
+++ mandoc/mdoc.7	2011/03/07 01:35:51	1.181
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-.\"	$Id: mdoc.7,v 1.176 2011/01/22 14:05:33 schwarze Exp $
+.\"	$Id: mdoc.7,v 1.181 2011/03/07 01:35:51 schwarze Exp $
 .\"
-.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
+.\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
 .\" Copyright (c) 2010 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
 .\"
 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
 .\"
-.Dd $Mdocdate: January 22 2011 $
+.Dd $Mdocdate: March 7 2011 $
 .Dt MDOC 7
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -52,9 +52,6 @@ Other lines are interpreted within the current state.
 .Nm
 documents may contain only graphable 7-bit ASCII characters, the space
 character, and, in certain circumstances, the tab character.
-All manuals must have
-.Ux
-line terminators.
 .Pp
 If the first character of a line is a space, that line is printed
 with a leading newline.
@@ -200,34 +197,6 @@ Thus, the following produces
 .Ed
 .Pp
 In free-form mode, quotes are regarded as opaque text.
-.Ss Dates
-There are several macros in
-.Nm
-that require a date argument.
-The canonical form for dates is the American format:
-.Pp
-.D1 Cm Month Day , Year
-.Pp
-The
-.Cm Day
-value is an optionally zero-padded numeral.
-The
-.Cm Month
-value is the full month name.
-The
-.Cm Year
-value is the full four-digit year.
-.Pp
-Reduced form dates are broken-down canonical form dates:
-.Pp
-.D1 Cm Month , Year
-.D1 Cm Year
-.Pp
-Some examples of valid dates follow:
-.Pp
-.D1 "May, 2009" Pq reduced form
-.D1 "2009" Pq reduced form
-.D1 "May 20, 2009" Pq canonical form
 .Ss Scaling Widths
 Many macros support scaled widths for their arguments, such as
 stipulating a two-inch list indentation with the following:
@@ -286,11 +255,13 @@ a line.
 By doing so, front-ends will be able to apply the proper amount of
 spacing after the end of sentence (unescaped) period, exclamation mark,
 or question mark followed by zero or more non-sentence closing
-delimiters (
-.Ns Sq \&) ,
+delimiters
+.Po
+.Sq \&) ,
 .Sq \&] ,
 .Sq \&' ,
-.Sq \&" ) .
+.Sq \&"
+.Pc .
 .Pp
 The proper spacing is also intelligently preserved if a sentence ends at
 the boundary of a macro line.
@@ -887,8 +858,10 @@ block.
 Publication date of an
 .Sx \&Rs
 block.
-This should follow the reduced or canonical form syntax described in
-.Sx Dates .
+Recommended formats of arguments are
+.Ar month day , year
+or just
+.Ar year .
 .Ss \&%I
 Publisher or issuer name of an
 .Sx \&Rs
@@ -1470,17 +1443,36 @@ This is the mandatory first macro of any
 manual.
 Its syntax is as follows:
 .Pp
-.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Op Ar date
+.D1 Pf \. Sx \&Dd Ar month day , year
 .Pp
 The
-.Ar date
-may be either
-.Ar $\&Mdocdate$ ,
-which signifies the current manual revision date dictated by
+.Ar month
+is the full English month name, the
+.Ar day
+is an optionally zero-padded numeral, and the
+.Ar year
+is the full four-digit year.
+.Pp
+Other arguments are not portable; the
+.Xr mandoc 1
+utility handles them as follows:
+.Bl -dash -offset 3n -compact
+.It
+To have the date automatically filled in by the
+.Ox
+version of
 .Xr cvs 1 ,
-or instead a valid canonical date as specified by
-.Sx Dates .
-If a date does not conform or is empty, the current date is used.
+the special string
+.Dq $\&Mdocdate$
+can be given as an argument.
+.It
+A few alternative date formats are accepted as well
+and converted to the standard form.
+.It
+If a date string cannot be parsed, it is used verbatim.
+.It
+If no date string is given, the current date is used.
+.El
 .Pp
 Examples:
 .Dl \&.Dd $\&Mdocdate$
@@ -2206,6 +2198,8 @@ Suppress a space.
 Following invocation, text is interpreted as free-form text until a
 macro is encountered.
 .Pp
+This has no effect when invoked at the start of a macro line.
+.Pp
 Examples:
 .Dl \&.Fl o \&Ns \&Ar output
 .Pp
@@ -2770,9 +2764,12 @@ does not start a new line.
 \*[hist]
 .It
 .Sx \&Dd
-without an argument prints
-.Dq Epoch .
-In mandoc, it resolves to the current date.
+with non-standard arguments behaves very strangely.
+When there are three arguments, they are printed verbatim.
+Any other number of arguments is replaced by the current date,
+but without any arguments the string
+.Dq Epoch
+is printed.
 .It
 .Sx \&Fl
 does not print a dash for an empty argument.
@@ -2906,6 +2903,7 @@ This is not supported by mandoc.
 .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr man 1 ,
 .Xr mandoc 1 ,
+.Xr eqn 7 ,
 .Xr man 7 ,
 .Xr mandoc_char 7
 .Xr roff 7 ,