Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

[Alejandro Colomar]

Hi Branden!

On 9/7/22 00:13, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> > > I've seen sporadically references to the numbers as chapters, probably
> > > from when the manual was a proper book, but that term seems to have
> > > fallen in use.
> >
> > I don't recall seeing this.  While not my preference, I would regard it
> > as an excusable innovation in response to an unhelpful overlap in prior
> > usage.
>
> I don't remember where I've seen this.  I seem to recall it, but maybe it's just 
> a glitch in my memory.  It would certainly simplify nomenclature.  If we come up 
> with a good term for subsections such as 3head, I might start using the term 
> colloquially.  Does subchapter sound good to you?


I've got good news for you.  I started writing intro(3type), after I got the 
first contribution of a new page to chapter 3type of the manual.

And while doing it, I found a place where the term 'chapter' is used.  It's very 
likely that there's where I saw it the other time.  It's in a comment in the 
intro(3) page, which seems to be there since there's git history.

The author of the page seems to be Michael Haardt; his last commit to the 
man-pages is from 2015, so I guess his email is still active.  Maybe he can 
comment.  I also CCed aeb and mtk, as they maintained the pages before me and 
may know if that term was in use at the time.


Cheers,

Alex

--
<http://www.alejandro-colomar.es/>

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