Re: [PATCH 1/2] system_data_types.7: srcfix

Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)
2020-09-29T12:14:07Z

On 9/28/20 3:29 PM, Jakub Wilk wrote:
> Hi Branden!
>
> In groff_man_style(7) you wrote:
>> Unused macro arguments are more often simply omitted, or good style
>> suggests that a more appropriate macro be chosen, that earlier
>> arguments are more important than later ones, or that arguments have
>> identical significance such that skipping any is superfluous.
>
> After 15 minutes of gawking at this sentence, I still don't understand
> what are you trying to say here. The sentence should be either
> thoroughly rephrased or removed.

I must say that I too found it hard to parse. I presume, Branden,
that you mean:

[[
Unused macro arguments are more often simply omitted, or good style
suggests
EITHER (1)
that a more appropriate macro be chosen,
(2)
that earlier arguments are more important than later ones, or
(3)
that arguments have
identical significance such that skipping any is superfluous.
]]

But it takes a few scans to work that out. Perhaps break
this into smaller pieces, or add some explicit structuring
elements to the sentence?

Thanks,

Michael

--
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/