Re: [groff] 01/03: **/*.man: Eliminate blank lines in man pages.

[Ingo Schwarze]

Ralph Corderoy wrote on Thu, Jan 16, 2020 at 05:07:38PM +0000:
> Ingo Schwarze wrote:

>> 3. In tmac/groff_trace.7.man, the blank lines you changed to .P
>>    are inside .EX blocks.  As far as i know, both blank lines
>>    and .P work portably in .nf mode and hence in .EX blocks and
>>    .Bd -unfilled and .Bd -literal.

> They give very different results though.  A blank line's vertical space
> will be that of the other non-blank lines whereas a .P's can be
> different, e.g. -Tpdf.  And .P will reset the left margin and indent.
> 
> It's important to remember that the world is not a TTY.  ;-)

Uh oh, i sometimes forget that...   8-/

You seem to have a point.

I'd say that means when a blank line occurs inside literal code
(or like in this case, inside literal input and output of a program)
wrapped in .EX/.EE, then usually blank lines are wanted rather than .P,
and it seems to me this applies to the cases in question
in tmac/groff_trace.7.man.

Yours,
  Ingo