From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: from out5-smtp.messagingengine.com ([66.111.4.29]:37420 "EHLO out5-smtp.messagingengine.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751121AbaECMpD (ORCPT ); Sat, 3 May 2014 08:45:03 -0400 Message-Id: <1399121099.30443.113236621.44458DE1@webmail.messagingengine.com> From: Benno Schulenberg To: Bjarni Ingi Gislason Cc: "Util-Linux" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Subject: Re: [PATCH 20/21] login-utils/last.1: Improve the typesetting of the manual Date: Sat, 03 May 2014 14:44:59 +0200 In-Reply-To: <1399084359-28425-4-git-send-email-bjarniig@rhi.hi.is> References: <1399084359-28425-1-git-send-email-bjarniig@rhi.hi.is> <1399084359-28425-4-git-send-email-bjarniig@rhi.hi.is> Sender: util-linux-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Hello Bjarni, On Sat, May 3, 2014, at 4:32, Bjarni Ingi Gislason wrote: > Add a space character in front of an ellipsis Hmm. I find it clearer when the ellipsis is glued to the thing that it applies to. But, as a space before it seems to be the accepted convention, okay. However, it would be nice if you could make thematic patches: one patch for each type of change. For example, one big patch for *all* man pages (in util-linux) that makes this space-before- ellipsis change, then one big patch for no-minus-within-options, and so on. (A strange effect of this ellipsis is that between the following pair of "] [" brackets there will be a double space instead of a single one. Do you see this too? An if so, would this be a bug or intentional?) > A minus is not used in words. People using UTF-8 and copy-and-paste > can(?) (may?) use "info", "man --ascii" No, you cannot require/suggest that people (if they want to copy and paste from the man-page output) use 'info' instead of 'man', or use an extra option. Commands in the output of plain 'man' should be copy- and-pastable. People who want to actually print a manual page may be required to use extra options to get the typesetting right. But for me, on a terminal in a UTF-8 locale, it makes no difference whether a man page contains \-\-long-option or --long-option, all those dashes render to 0x2d. So copy-and-paste will work fine. By the way, what do you use to look at a typeset version of a man page? For the first time in my life I've looked at a virtual printout with 'man -Tps login-utils/last.1 >last.ps; evince last.ps', and I must say that I find the rendering of --long-option more readable than of \-\-long-option. But as I won't ever use this, either way is fine with me. > -.RI [ username ...] > -.RI [ tty ...] > +.RI [ username " ...] > +.RI [ tty " ...] Hm. An unpaired quotation mark I find ugly. Better do "username " or " ...]" instead. Benno -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again