Re: [groff] 03/09: tmac/an-old.tmac: Stop remapping ` and '.

[James K. Lowden]

On Mon, 2 Nov 2020 23:24:49 +1100
John Gardner <gardnerjohng@gmail.com> wrote:

> nobody in their right mind would deliberately write source-code in a
> proportional typeface, so we can trust the use of Georgia or
> Helvetica to indicate body text?stuff for reading and styling.

The C++ Annotated Reference Manual sets source code in proportional
font.  Stroustrup discusses his rationale in the introduction.  

I'm not sure that affects your argument of how easy our existing
manpages are to read or automatically convert, but the ARM is good
evidence that proportional fonts make perfectly readable -- maybe more
readable -- source code.  The widespread use of monospace fonts to
represent source code is more likely the result of cargo-cult
typography and lack of tooling, witness the near disappearance of
vgrind.  

--jkl