Re: [PATCH 2/2] man-pages.7: Update non-breaking space advice.

["Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)" <alx.manpages@gmail.com>]

Hi Branden,

On 7/31/21 5:45 AM, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> * Advise usage of \~ escape instead of \SPACE; the former, a groff
>    extension from circa 1990, has been supported by Heirloom Doctools
>    troff since 2005 and by mandoc since 2019.  The advantage is that
>    \~ is an _adjustable_ non-breaking space, so it will typeset
>    non-jarringly both in .EX/.EE examples when filling is off, and in
>    normal running text (which is filled).

Thanks for the patch!

> * Say "non-breaking" instead of "nonbreaking".  These are the only
>    occurrences of either in the man-pages tree, except in Changes.old,
>    which uses "non-breaking".

I'll do as usual and copy here an extract from man-pages(7) :) :

    Hyphenation with multi, non, pre, re, sub, and so on
        The  general tendency in modern English is not to hyphenate
        after prefixes such as "multi", "non", "pre", "re",  "sub",
        and  so on.  Manual pages should generally follow this rule
        when these prefixes are used in natural  English  construc‐
        tions  with simple suffixes.  The following list gives some
        examples of the preferred forms:

            interprocess
            multithreaded
            multiprocess
            nonblocking
            nondefault
            nonempty
            noninteractive
            nonnegative
            nonportable
            nonzero
            preallocated
            precreate
            prerecorded
            reestablished
            reinitialize
            rearm
            reread
            subcomponent
            subdirectory
            subsystem

        Hyphens should be retained when the prefixes  are  used  in
        nonstandard  English  words, with trademarks, proper nouns,
        acronyms, or compound terms.  Some examples:

            non‐ASCII
            non‐English
            non‐NULL
            non‐real‐time

        Finally, note that "re‐create" and "recreate" are two  dif‐
        ferent verbs, and the former is probably what you want.


> 
> See linux-man@ list discussion at
> <https://lore.kernel.org/linux-man/\
> 20210729115508.pt6btsqd7g5tuhg6@localhost.localdomain/> and follow-ups.
> ---

BTW, this one also doesn't apply.  I think it is probably your mailer.
Can you use git-send-email(1)?

Thanks,

Alex

>   man7/man-pages.7 | 6 +++---
>   1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/man7/man-pages.7 b/man7/man-pages.7
> index 3819dfd97..06dc7097c 100644
> --- a/man7/man-pages.7
> +++ b/man7/man-pages.7
> @@ -686,14 +686,14 @@ man 7 man\-pages
>   If the command is short, then it can be included inline in the text,
>   in italic format, for example,
>   .IR "man 7 man-pages" .
> -In this case, it may be worth using nonbreaking spaces
> -("\e\ ") at suitable places in the command.
> +In this case, it may be worth using non-breaking spaces
> +(\e\(ti) at suitable places in the command.
>   Command options should be written in italics (e.g.,
>   .IR \-l ).
>   .PP
>   Expressions, if not written on a separate indented line, should
>   be specified in italics.
> -Again, the use of nonbreaking spaces may be appropriate
> +Again, the use of non-breaking spaces may be appropriate
>   if the expression is inlined with normal text.
>   .PP
>   When showing example shell sessions, user input should be formatted in bold, for example
> 


-- 
Alejandro Colomar
Linux man-pages comaintainer; https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/