Re: [PATCH] rtnetlink.7: Document struct ifa_cacheinfo

G. Branden Robinson
2024-11-06T17:45:36Z

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Hi Stephen,

At 2024-11-06T09:18:01-0800, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> Alejandro Colomar <alx@kernel.org> wrote:
> > We use two spaces after period (the correct amount). :)
>
> Double spacing after period is a leftover from using typewriters.

No, it isn't. See URL below.

> Modern usage is single space after period.
[...]
> These days most contemporary style guides also recommend using a
> single space between sentences, including:
>
> The Chicago Manual of Style
> The American Psychological Association (often referred to as “APA”)
> Microsoft Manual of Style
> The Gregg Reference Manual
> The Associated Press Stylebook

You're not bringing any new information to the table, and you don't
appear to understand why the two-space rule is in place for _typesetting
software_. I don't just mean *roff, but TeX as well.

Neither of these is a WYSIWYG system. Neither of them is Markdown.

The rule is not there so that people can argue over how many space
widths should separate sentences. The rule is there so that the
formatter knows where the boundaries between sentences _are_.

If you despise the use of two spaces between sentences in a *roff source
document, there's an easy solution: use what Alex calls "semantic
newlines".

https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html.node/Sentences.html#Sentences

I furthermore remind the reader that, in GNU troff/man(7), the
intersentence space width is configurable at _rendering_ time--if the
author of the man(7) document honors one of the conventions that permits
the formatter to detect sentence boundaries.

For example...

groff_man_style(7):

Files

...

/usr/groff/site-tmac/man.local
Put site‐local changes and customizations into this file.

.\" Put only one space after the end of a sentence.
.ss 12 0 \" See groff(7).
.\" Keep pages narrow even on wide terminals.
.if n .if \n[LL]>80n .nr LL 80n

Arguing about the number of spaces between sentences in a discussion of
"semantic newlines" (or whatever you want to call them) is
counterproductive and wasteful of time.

Regards,
Branden