From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-12.5 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_00,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,FREEMAIL_FORGED_FROMDOMAIN,FREEMAIL_FROM, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MENTIONS_GIT_HOSTING, NICE_REPLY_A,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,USER_AGENT_SANE_1 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CFB03C4361B for ; Sun, 20 Dec 2020 13:19:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4B9523102 for ; Sun, 20 Dec 2020 13:19:56 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726784AbgLTNT4 (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Dec 2020 08:19:56 -0500 Received: from lindbergh.monkeyblade.net ([23.128.96.19]:37226 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726629AbgLTNTz (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Dec 2020 08:19:55 -0500 Received: from mail-wm1-x32d.google.com (mail-wm1-x32d.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:4864:20::32d]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 44CC2C0613CF for ; Sun, 20 Dec 2020 05:19:15 -0800 (PST) Received: by mail-wm1-x32d.google.com with SMTP id v14so7205537wml.1 for ; Sun, 20 Dec 2020 05:19:15 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=subject:to:cc:references:from:message-id:date:user-agent :mime-version:in-reply-to:content-language:content-transfer-encoding; bh=HNhdO5g08tAHZXlBYaS9oZBA0sJyaHt9wZoas//UsLw=; b=YLTiEXkoz9Pmh7E3Hzeg2rTjSEfm4rMbKdhh0RX1MTqmq+Jt+Rc/Edb/qdFlXf+8jM 3j9UCFb1HcXSdUkM7TSvdMoMMdfNROqHV+OMRG/o5pi6eZzz0Y/IAg2qUKnhmSGk+arm pYcV4Vku0h3IF4p3qETKCrmrDUrdO8akBQ4b28mRWWe2mkzpLdn8lOhntq8lPMHOoKRS JKwf91rI3erhKnDfQEj4jbrGakTBa8CHhjRbCSVhv24HGUDNyHgHeHd67CgS5+MXzDAL u+XS4avnBLzOcICZ+tj67CU1SBSzXXDR2+YokdboDz2l4f1tkoSPfZTvZTD4AgUZrSEQ GBYg== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:subject:to:cc:references:from:message-id:date :user-agent:mime-version:in-reply-to:content-language :content-transfer-encoding; bh=HNhdO5g08tAHZXlBYaS9oZBA0sJyaHt9wZoas//UsLw=; b=pQVILQ80ULo9ow7+vYwwgZQaz+UHr7MC1rFVx/RaTYtsQFwp1fwVTVo/LMWyw414TB W1vlWsjlKFAkMh7Wf/btM3ZBPQaBdO5fpEt4yCiyzEXXCnvjTtbJNTWoIcRszBAsGE2O Ms7bfnLs/y/d4u0rEXXTG8Tsd/8v/a6tPrx0jjzK8BZOXCWUSwB5SwJyRdR7Be4Pqf2B 7cCYPBYsa2EScztypv5/hnKDTLYjeIY3iKPJim0PHM6km6pqZMQJCKQ6oIS71L1k9Czv 2nszg6mZUIq9dU78czkVjs1hD0YmJsj/rzJVuSZcxGQV3WD0uh+kUKEJCp3vjX3DhlBM gAIA== X-Gm-Message-State: AOAM533sa8M0cPFXEno5q7uHvCurR2cWhV3arzcMiZjIgQnGgdC9Wm2U qA8CpJh26IuTuYcMo7VFNccV9e4hyy8= X-Google-Smtp-Source: ABdhPJwDnT32Vd0+gM9dAhGi8C1lf0ZWSDQWUS8t1t1AlqKPYJrmfQu5kka61heCZ2ruD87f0JyNLQ== X-Received: by 2002:a05:600c:2057:: with SMTP id p23mr11893910wmg.109.1608470353928; Sun, 20 Dec 2020 05:19:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from [192.168.1.143] ([170.253.51.130]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id l8sm25343826wrb.73.2020.12.20.05.19.12 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128); Sun, 20 Dec 2020 05:19:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: Re: Right margin for code (SYNOPSIS, EXAMPLES, ...) To: "G. Branden Robinson" Cc: mtk.manpages@gmail.com, linux-man References: <1f731252-395b-e8bd-ed5d-cc3b3eeea948@gmail.com> <8d84a00d-cd4d-86b5-9ed0-9357324a824d@gmail.com> <20201220085701.5wjihnjalt5bgk4b@localhost.localdomain> From: "Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)" Message-ID: <56d5cd0a-b0ac-b9eb-a528-3d031584cc33@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 20 Dec 2020 14:19:12 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:78.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/78.5.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20201220085701.5wjihnjalt5bgk4b@localhost.localdomain> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-man@vger.kernel.org Hi Branden, Thanks :) I'll use 78 from now on, then. Cheers, Alex On 12/20/20 9:57 AM, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > Hi Alex, > > At 2020-12-12T19:01:30+0100, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) wrote: >> On 12/11/20 10:26 PM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote: >>> Hi Alex, >>> >>> On Fri, 11 Dec 2020 at 22:14, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) >>> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hi Michael, >>>> >>>> For code, for example function prototypes in SYNOPSIS, do you have a >>>> preferred right margin? 80? 72? >>> >>> If I understand your question, 80. But what prompts you to ask? > > I researched the question of right margin/line length for a change I > made to groff earlier this year, and my findings were that you should > format man pages for 78 columns; this will probably work practically > everywhere. Things other than tbl(1) tables will work okay at widths > even narrow than this. > > Why 78 and not 80? I couldn't find an authoritative answer, but my > guess is that 80 was viewed as too risky for terminals that would > misbehave with respect to wrapping or scrolling when a write was done to > the last cell on the line or screen. That gets us down to 79, and > perhaps a preference for even numbers over odd ones explains 78. > > Quoting my own research: > > "...man-db man(1) has supported the LL register for eighteen years, and > Brouwer/Lucifredi man(1) for fifteen. Heirloom Doctools's man macros > set the line length to 78n on nroff devices unconditionally. mandoc(1) > similarly also always formats for 78 columns on terminals. groff's > mdoc(7) macros grew support for LL in parallel with man(7) in 2002 and > never added the \n[.l] introspection at all."[1] > > Regards, > Branden > > [1] https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/commit/?id=7770e10fa4d5b903b6923f466154c806c44de35a > -- Alejandro Colomar Linux man-pages comaintainer; https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/