If you send your nroff input file to the RFC editor as well as the
nroff'd output file, which is the recommended practice, then modifying
the ms macros themselves is not an option.
Well, sort of. You can .rm an existing macro and .de it differently.
I do that for the SH, H, XS, XA, XE, XE and TC requests, then use
soelim to put my macros into the nroff source I send to rfced. So
far no feedback from that quarter, positive or negative.
Automatic TOC processing cannot be done directly within nroff unless you
are willing to accept the TOC at the end of the document. To place the
TOC at the beginning of the document usually requires two passes. The
first pass is used to generate the TOC, which is then sourced (.so'd)
into the document for the second pass.
That's the LaTeX-like way. What I do is start a draft-with-TOC with
.so tmac.idt
.pi ./fixtoc.sh
where fixtoc is Postel's fix.sh with the added function of moving the
TOC from the end to a marked point near the front.
Matt
(But the fun part was computing the six-months-plus-five-days
expiration date in nroff.)