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author | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2018-08-08 13:54:05 +0000 |
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committer | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2018-08-08 13:54:05 +0000 |
commit | 25dec2331872d88911b353a9afb7fa933740de44 (patch) | |
tree | 7295aa556d8cd0f3c39963c667d573042e6ebb71 | |
parent | d0a822ad7e192cd33b06884546d19f5c881dfee2 (diff) | |
download | mandoc-25dec2331872d88911b353a9afb7fa933740de44.tar.gz mandoc-25dec2331872d88911b353a9afb7fa933740de44.tar.zst mandoc-25dec2331872d88911b353a9afb7fa933740de44.zip |
After years of deliberation, finally provide a clear recommendation
for hyphens and minus signs in manual pages.
Since there is consensus that a typographically perfect solution is
impossible, let's KISS - just write "-", don't bother with "\-", all
currently relevant manual page formatters can handle "-" reasonably.
OK jmc@ bentley@
-rw-r--r-- | mandoc_char.7 | 37 |
1 files changed, 21 insertions, 16 deletions
diff --git a/mandoc_char.7 b/mandoc_char.7 index 93893435..072893f4 100644 --- a/mandoc_char.7 +++ b/mandoc_char.7 @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -.\" $Id: mandoc_char.7,v 1.68 2018/03/15 18:10:31 schwarze Exp $ +.\" $Id: mandoc_char.7,v 1.69 2018/08/08 13:54:05 schwarze Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2003 Jason McIntyre <jmc@openbsd.org> .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv> @@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" -.Dd $Mdocdate: March 15 2018 $ +.Dd $Mdocdate: August 8 2018 $ .Dt MANDOC_CHAR 7 .Os .Sh NAME @@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ names; instead, provide ASCII transcriptions of the names. .Ss Dashes and Hyphens In typography there are different types of dashes of various width: the hyphen (-), -the minus sign (\(mi), the en-dash (\(en), -and the em-dash (\(em). +the em-dash (\(em), +and the mathematical minus sign (\(mi). .Pp Hyphens are used for adjectives; to separate the two parts of a compound word; @@ -100,14 +100,6 @@ Such automatic hyphenation is not supported by which only breaks the line at whitespace, and inside words only after existing hyphens. .Pp -The mathematical minus sign is used for negative numbers or subtraction. -It should be written as -.Sq \e(mi : -.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -a = 3 \e(mi 1; -b = \e(mi2; -.Ed -.Pp The en-dash is used to separate the two elements of a range, or can be used the same way as an em-dash. It should be written as @@ -126,10 +118,23 @@ Three things \e(em apples, oranges, and bananas. This is not that \e(em rather, this is that. .Ed .Pp -Note: -hyphens, minus signs, and en-dashes look identical under normal ASCII output. -Other formats, such as PostScript, render them correctly, -with differing widths. +In +.Xr roff 7 +documents, the minus sign is normally written as +.Sq \e- . +In manual pages, some style guides recommend to also use +.Sq \e- +if an ASCII 0x2d +.Dq hyphen-minus +output glyph that can be copied and pasted is desired in output modes +supporting it, for example in +.Fl T Cm utf8 +and +.Fl T Cm html . +But currently, no practically relevant manual page formatter actually +requires that subtlety, so in manual pages just write plain +.Sq - +to represent hyphen, minus, and hyphen-minus. .Ss Spaces To separate words in normal text, for indenting and alignment in literal context, and when none of the following special cases apply, |