Re: Using tbl(1) for structure definitions

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Alex!

At 2022-07-29T17:26:10+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> On 7/29/22 15:52, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> > I don't think you're abusing it but you are employing some heavy
> > machinery that brings some limitations with it.  The worst from my
> > perspective is that using tbl(1) in man pages limits your
> > flexibility in terms of line length.  Terminal windows can be all
> > kinds of crazy sizes.
> 
> Oh, didn't the Mesopotamians already know about the standard tablet
> size of 80x24?  :D
> 
> "Thou shalt set your tablet size to 80x24 or larger, but never
> smaller; or thou shalt not report a bug if the formatting becomes
> unreadable.  Thou shalt not assume your neighbor has a tablet wider
> than 80 characters, so thou shalt not write past it."
> 
> I think that's what the famous tablets said.

Mmm, so it would be nice to overcome that line intersection problem in
grotty(1).  Maybe for groff 1.24...

> Sure; compare:
> 
> 
>            u64  mode;     /* Mode          for
>                              O_{CREAT,TMPFILE}
>                              */
> 
>            u64  mode;     /* Mode          for
>                           O_{CREAT,TMPFILE}
>                           */

Ah, you want the comments to wrap extra-attractively.  Let me counter by
suggesting that most of the time, the comments should fit on the same
ouput line anyway.

> > I'm really looking forward to killing off another application of
> > `PD`.
> 
> Ok.  T think I'll remove .PD, and leave the extra blank line until .TS
> is fixed.  A blank line will not hurt too much.

The fix should be in my next push; I merely got caught in a yak shave
called groff_mm(7).

Regards,
Branden

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