Re: Clarification needed in regards to "WARNING: blank line in fill mode, using .sp"

[Raf Czlonka <rczlonka@gmail.com>]

Hi Ingo,

On Tue, Sep 28, 2021 at 04:10:00PM BST, Ingo Schwarze wrote:
> 
> [...]
> 
> If you wonder *why* the fact described by a message is problematic
> and what you might do about it, please consult the mandoc(1) manual,
> in this case:
> 
>   blank line in fill mode, using .sp
>   (mdoc) The meaning of blank input lines is only well-defined in non-fill
>   mode: In fill mode, line breaks of text input lines are not supposed to
>   be significant.  However, for compatibility with groff, blank lines in
>   fill mode are formatted like sp requests.  To request a paragraph break,
>   use Pp instead of a blank line.

Sure, I did read it - it was also the reason why I've mentioned Pp.

> Do *not* try to guess what to do about a message from the message itself
> unless you are sure you fully understand its meaning and rationale.
> 
> That said, note that this message says ", using .sp", *not* "consider
> using" or "better use".

I guess one might read this as "Hey! I'm using .sp, and so should you!" ;^)

> > This seem to be contrary to what the mdoc(7) manual page says:
> > 
> > 	Many aspects of the basic syntax of the mdoc language are
> > 	based on the roff(7) language; see the LANGUAGE SYNTAX and
> > 	MACRO SYNTAX sections in the roff(7) manual for details,
> > 	in particular regarding comments, escape sequences, whitespace,
> > 	and quoting.  However, using roff(7) requests in mdoc
> > 	documents is discouraged; mandoc(1) supports some of them
> > 	merely for backward compatibility.
> > 
> > I'm obviously talking about the "discouraged" here as there's no
> > backward compatibility to speak of - as mentioned earlier, this is
> > an mdoc(7)-formatted manual page.
> 
> Yes.  Using .sp in mdoc(7) - and even in man(7)! - is usually bad
> style.
> 
> > Given that '.sp' is nowhere to be found in mdoc(7) and is only
> > present in roff(7), perhaps the warning should mention '.Pp' macro
> > instead?
> 
> Absolutely not, that would be a lie.  Wenn you do have a blank line
> in fill mode, the parser uses .sp as the fallback, *not* .Pp.

OK, a different, perhaps an easier, question then. In the most
obvious, nine times out of ten, scenario where a blank line separates
two sentences, shouldn't .Pp be used instead of .sp, given that
both the latter, as well as blank lines, are considered bad style?

Regards,

Raf
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