Don't override default value for PAGE= during chapter 06-groff

[gerard@…]

The PAGE variable defaults to A4, so we don't need to override it. No matter what we do, part of the world will have to do something to change it, so might as well make the installation instructions as short as possible.

Do add a note about the PAGE variable, it defaulting to A4 and the option to override and set to LETTER for us on the American continents.

[greg@…]

No, the whole reason this came up in the first place is that the default DOES change, depending on the phase of the moon, the time of the month, whatever :-)

Just to be clear, in my tests,

a normal Ch 6 build gave:- checking default paper size... letter

but a rebuild of Ch 6 gave:- checking default paper size... A4

This resulted in file differences in iteration tests which reinforces the point that we DO need to override it. The docs even say so:-

"If you want A4 or letter paper format and the configure script produces an incorrect guess, say

PAGE=xxx ./configure

where xxx' should be either A4' or `letter'. Note that this will only affect the paper selection for grops. For compatibility with ditroff, the default page length in gtroff is always 11 inches. The page length can be changed with the `pl' request."

Ok, so it's a relatively minor issue, but if you care about reproducibility (you should) then something needs to be done. I suppose a note will be fine.

[gerard@…]

That's interesting. Did you find out what influences the guess?

In light of this, we might just as well keep things the way they are and add a note to change to A4 if needed.

I don't suppose it'll be worthwhile fixing the guessing system so it'll be the same at all times?

[jeremy@…]

Committing to CVS now.