Re: [groff] 05/05: groff_man.5.man: Make editorial fixes.

[Ingo Schwarze]

Hi Branden,

G. Branden Robinson wrote on Thu, Jun 27, 2019 at 10:13:40AM -0400:

> gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
> in repository groff.
> 
> commit 393b55749a64e5a6898e3ad3a44c0c5b4db2f323
> Author: G. Branden Robinson <address@hidden>
> Date:   Sun Jun 16 14:51:18 2019 +1000
> 
>     groff_man.5.man: Make editorial fixes.
>     
>     Corrections:
>     * Stop implying that "\&"'s value in suppressing end-of-sentence
>       punctuation sequence recognition comes only at the end of an input
>       line.
[...]

That's not a "correction", and i think that change should be reverted.

As far as i understand, it is true that "\&" has value to suppress
end-of-sentence recognition only at the end of an input line.
Or can you show an example where it is needed in the middle of an
input line?

Writing something like

  Bogus Inc.\& sells snake oil at very competitive prices.

would be cargo cult programming and should not be recommended.
The simpler

  Bogus Inc. sells snake oil at very competitive prices.

works just fine with both groff and mandoc.

> diff --git a/tmac/groff_man.7.man b/tmac/groff_man.7.man
> index 2ac4629..a7cd39f 100644
> --- a/tmac/groff_man.7.man
> +++ b/tmac/groff_man.7.man
[...]
> @@ -1705,12 +1724,12 @@ CSTR\e\(ti#8 documents the B language.
>  .B \e&
>  Zero-width space.
>  .
> -Append to an input line to prevent an end-of-sentence punctuation
> -sequence from being recognized as such, or insert at the beginning of an
> -input line to prevent a dot or apostrophe from being interpreted as the
> -beginning of a
> +Insert at the beginning of an input line to prevent a dot or apostrophe
> +from being interpreted as the beginning of a
>  .I roff
>  request.
> +Append to an end-of-sentence punctuation sequence to keep it from being
> +recognized as such.
>  .
>  .
>  .TP

I think that particular change is spreading FUD rather than making
anything better.

Yours,
  Ingo