Re: [Quilt-dev] [patch 10/26] Use "e.g." correctly.

[Jean Delvare]

On Wed, 20 Jun 2018 12:11:19 +0200, Jean Delvare wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Jun 2018 12:22:42 -0400, g.branden.robinson@gmail.com wrote:
> > The Latin "exempli gratia" is abbreviated "e.g.".
> > 
> > Also, use a zero-width-space escape to defeat roff's end-of-sentence
> > detection.  See section 4.1 of CSTR #54, "Troff User's Manual", Ossanna
> > & Kernighan <https://www.troff.org/54.pdf>.
> > 
> > Index: quilt/doc/quilt.1.in
> > ===================================================================
> > --- quilt.orig/doc/quilt.1.in
> > +++ quilt/doc/quilt.1.in
> > @@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ If none of these variables is set, \\[lq
> >  An empty value indicates that no pager should be used.
> >  .IP QUILT_COLORS 4
> >  By default, quilt uses its predefined color set in order to be more
> > -comprehensible when distiguishing various types of patches, eg.
> > +comprehensible when distiguishing various types of patches, e.g.\\&
> >  applied/unapplied, failed, etc.
> >  .IP
> >  To override one or more color settings, set the QUILT_COLORS variable in  
> 
> Good catch, thanks.
> 
> Out of curiosity, would moving the "e.g." at the beginning of the
> following line be a suitable alternative to adding that
> zero-width-space escape? If so, this may preferable, being more
> readable.

Answering to myself...

From the latest version of groff's documentation:

   * Use '\&' after '!', '?', and '.' if they are followed by space,
     tab, or newline characters and don't end a sentence.

So no, moving the "e.g." at the beginning of the following line makes
no difference.

However, from man-pages(7):

       Always include periods in such abbreviations, as shown here.  In
       addition, "e.g." and "i.e." should always be followed by a comma.

So the proper fix is to add a comma, not a zero-width-space escape.

-- 
Jean Delvare
SUSE L3 Support