Re: [Groff] groff_ms.man

[Ted Harding]

On 23-Jan-02 Rick Richardson wrote:
> It seems one could write a whole book on the history and typographical
> use of the ellipsis.

Indeed (though it might not be a very big one).

Let me throw my own spoon of salt into this soup,
and end with a practical suggestion.

Salt:
=====
I have looked in my "Chicago Manual of Style" (with
deference to Stewart) about this. There are 18 references
to "ellipsis points" (to a total of 42 sections), and
4 references to "suspension points".

Usage, layout, and relationships to adjacent punctuation
vary in complex ways dependent on context and on language.
For instance, Russian usage is similar to French but with
the following feature:

  Ya... vy... my tol'ko chto priyekali. [like French]

[RUSSIAN]:
  Mitya!.. Gde vy byli?..    [RUSSIAN]
(i.e. ! or ? takes theplace of one dot)

[FRENCH]:
  L'Algérie... mon Dieu! un ciel!
  des arbres!... et le reste!... Toutefois,
  sept ans de discipline....
(always three dots, even after a full stop).

Suggestion:
===========
Since each of us can define an ellipsis "glyph" as we
please in groff, let each of us do that in the way which
we think is appropriate to context, language, etc., and
not try to arrive at an agreement on what it should be.

For instance, since I usually output in PostScript,
I make use of the "ellipsis" glyph in groff: "\(el".
But, for aesthetic reasons, I often surround it by a
little extra space:

  .char \(El \^\(el\^

I do the same with the en-dash especially when I want
to use it in a numerical range, e.g. "0-6": when
typeset via PostScript, "\(en" appears to touch the "0"
and the "6", and I prefer to see a little space, so:

  .char \(En \^\(en\^

and then it looks nicer.

It is so easy to do this sort of thing that I think it
really is best left to the user to decide what suits
their purpose, and set it up that way. That, after all,
is what typography is about. Whether it works nicely
or not depends on your good taste.

Best wishes to all,
Ted.

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Date: 23-Jan-02                                       Time: 19:46:32
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