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Date:      Mon, 13 Nov 2000 18:05:49 +0200
From:      Maxim Sobolev <sobomax@FreeBSD.org>
To:        Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za>
Cc:        Andrzej Bialecki <abial@FreeBSD.org>, doc@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/lib/libc/gen sysctl.3  src/release/picobsd/tinyware/sps README sps.c
Message-ID:  <3A10115C.B6DC1DD4@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <43428.974102765@axl.fw.uunet.co.za>

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Sheldon Hearn wrote:

> On Sat, 11 Nov 2000 08:12:39 PST, Andrzej Bialecki wrote:
>
> >   Modified files:
> >     lib/libc/gen         sysctl.3
> >   Log:
> >   Correct description of KERN_PROC. Add description of KERN_PROC_ARGS.
> >
> >   Revision  Changes    Path
> >   1.40      +14 -3     src/lib/libc/gen/sysctl.3
>
> New text should not introduce hard sentence breaks. :-)
>
> I usually mention this in private, but it seems that these critters are
> on the rise again, so I think it's worth bothering everyone again.
>
> +.El
> +
> ^^^^
>
> This blank line should really be a paragraph marker (Pp).
>
> +If the third level name is KERN_PROC_ARGS then the command line argument
> +array is returned in a flattened form, i.e. zero-terminated arguments
> +follow each other. The total size of array is returned. It's also possible
>                 ^^^^^                                 ^^^^^
> +for a process to set it's own process title this way.
>
> Hard sentence breaks.  Here's the guideline I mail people about line
> breaking in manual pages:
>
> | The line breaking guideline can be explained as follows:
> |
> | Each sentence should begin on a new line.
> | When a sentence is too long to fit on a line comfortably
> | (where the subjective interpretation of comfort
> | seems to be around 70 characters),
> | it should be broken on sentence fragments.
> | Breaking sentence fragments on punctuation,
> | as done here,
> | seems to be popular.
>
> Lots of people disagree with me about the line length issue, so you
> needn't agree with me on that.  But the rule about each sentence
> beginning on its own line should be adhered to.

How about creating `manlint' script, which will search manpage for common
inconsistencies (hard breaks, long lines, incorrect macro usage etc)? This
would simplify task both for developers and doc team.

-Maxim





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