From 987c3b5a6e0b6a800c354725d214d71e5098c1d8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?John=20Ankarstr=C3=B6m?= <john@ankarstrom.se>
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2021 17:03:41 +0100
Subject: Change multi-line format specification syntax

---
 rf.1 | 29 ++++++++++++++---------------
 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

(limited to 'rf.1')

diff --git a/rf.1 b/rf.1
index 924f9c7..ca37ad4 100644
--- a/rf.1
+++ b/rf.1
@@ -233,24 +233,24 @@ of the authors, you can use the special
 syntax, with an uppercase instead of lowercase
 .Sq a .
 .
-.Ss Special backslash behavior
-.Bl -enum
-.It
-A backslash at the end of a format line acts as a line continuation marker.
-The newline after the backslash is preserved.
-.It
-For format macros describing citations, a backslash immediately following the macro name will cause the reference be joined to the preceding line.
-.El
+.Ss Multiple lines
+If no argument is given to a format macro, then
+.Nm
+will read the format specification from the following lines until a line containing
+.Sq ..
+is encountered, signifying the end of the multi-line format specification.
 .Pp
-Anywhere else in the line, backslashes are preserved literally.
+Within a multi-line format spefication, use the escapes \\$2 and \\$3
+to interpolate (respectively) any suffix and prefix given to the citation macro.
 .Pp
-By using backslashes, you can implement footnote-based citations.
-For example, using the ms macro package:
+For example, the following multi-line format specification implements footnote references:
 .Bd -literal -offset indent
-\&.Fx\\ \\**\\
-\&.FS\\
-%a, {\\fI%t\\fR}, {\\*Q%q\\*U}, %y.\\
+\&.Fx
+\\$3\\**\\$2
+\&.FS
+%a, {\\fI%t\\fR}, {\\*Q%q\\*U}, %y.
 \&.FE 
+\&..
 .Ed
 .
 .Ss Automatic cleanup
@@ -311,7 +311,6 @@ will output the following source code:
 \&.SH
 Previous work
 
-
 \&.LP
 Davidson
 (1991)
-- 
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