Re: `\c`, mdoc(7), and man(7) extension macros (was: [PATCH 1/2] man*/: srcfix)

[Alejandro Colomar]

Hi Ingo,

[...ingoring the battle in which I don't want to participate...]
[My position here is that man(7) has problems, but I fear that jumping
to mdoc(7) *may* be worse; I can't know before jumping, which is a
problem.  Maybe if some pages are added written in mdoc(7), I get used
to it and start to like it, but until that happens, I'm sticking to
man(7).  For now, I prepared the repo to welcome mdoc(7) pages.]

But my mail was for the following.  I'd like to comment on this
comparison:

On Fri, Oct 27, 2023 at 01:27:53AM +0200, Ingo Schwarze wrote:
> 
> Active macros, same functionality in mdoc(7) and man(7):
>   .Dd/.Dt/.Os   .TH
>   .Sh           .SH
>   .Ss           .SS
>   .Xr           .MR
>   .Pp           .PP/.P
>   .Bd -literal  .EX/.EE
>   .Bl -bullet   .IP/.TP/.TQ   # -dash/-hyphen is almost identical

My guidelines in man-pages(7) recommend that you only use .IP \[bu]
for bullets (or \(bu if you want more portability).  I would remove TP
and TQ from there.

>   .Bl -column   tbl(1)
>   .Bl -enum     .IP/.TP/.TQ

Similarly, this would be .IP [1] or .IP (1), but never TP nor TQ.

>   .Bl -tag      .IP/.TP/.TQ

And for this one, I only recommend TP and TQ (TQ as a Tag Qontinuation
--it sounds better in my head, where I don't see it written :p--).  I'd
remove IP here.

>   .Pf/.Ns       .BI/.IB \c
>   .Lk           .UR/.UE
>   .Mt           .MT/.ME
>   .Em           .I
>   .Sy           .B
>   .No           .BR/.IR/.RB/.RI

Cheers,
Alex

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

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature