Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 00:18:30 -0800 (PST) From: Hiten Pandya <hitmaster2k@yahoo.com> To: "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net> Cc: doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: docs/32676: file(1) formatting nit Message-ID: <20011213081830.19224.qmail@web21108.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <rs7krsdwam.krs@localhost.localdomain>
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hi, i think we should just hard-code the value of 76/5/4 columns into the man formatter (nroff).. i beleive.. this would save us from a lot of hassle... but then.. not everyone has a 80 column screen :-) Thanks, =Hiten =<hiten@uk.FreeBSD.org --- "Gary W. Swearingen" <swear@blarg.net> wrote: > > > > > Starting lines with a space is bogus, and causes > groff(1) > > to stop formatting the current line. There's > nothing wrong > > with some text running of a right margin; > manpages display > > "literal" text exactly as it is shown by a > program, and the > > output of man(1) could be controlled by a pager > utility > > like more(1) or less(1). > > There IS something wrong: pager utilities can't know > where the > left margin is (without some AI code) with resulting > ugly and > hard-to-read line wrapping and occasional > trunctation of text > (as I observe in XEmacs's man file(1) with a > 80-column X window). > > Man pages should have a convention to represent the > end(s) of > wrapped literal lines. Something like "[\]" or > "[NL]" or "[wrap]" at > the end or "[+]" or "[cont]" at the beginning. I've > always preferred > the beginning (ala FORTRAN), but on Unix the end is > more common. > > But there's not enough literal stuff in man pages to > spend much time > worrying about it. > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message ===== -Hiten, Thank You, Yours Sincerely, Hiten Pandya, <hiten@uk.freebsd.org> <http://www.geocities.com/hitmaster2k>; __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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