[TUHS] TeX and groff (was: roff(7))

[Jon Steinhart]

Ralph Corderoy writes:
> Hi Jon,
>
> > I never understood "interpolating a register" to have any relation to
> > the definition of interpolate that I learned in math.
>
> The first definition makes sense of it:
>
>     1. (transitive, intransitive) To introduce (something) between other
>     things; especially to insert (possibly spurious) words into a text.
>
>         in verse 74, the second line is clearly interpolated
>
>     2. (mathematics) To estimate the value of a function between two
>     tabulated points.
>
>     3. (computing) During the course of processing some data, and in
>     response to a directive in that data, to fetch data from a different
>     source and process it in-line along with the original data. 
>
>         ― https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interpolate
>
> -- 
> Cheers, Ralph.

Yeah, I looked it up too.  Yes, the argument can be made that one of the
definitions can be forced to sort of fit; I'm guessing that #3 didn't
exist when troff was written.  So I'm gonna stick to my point that using
that word is awkward and makes the document a bit harder to understand.
Especially in the context of programming languages, of which troff is one.
To the best of my knowledge, nobody talks about "a = b;" as interpolating b.