From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from localhost (fantadrom.bsd.lv [local]) by fantadrom.bsd.lv (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTPA id e8d885f9 for ; Wed, 8 Aug 2018 08:54:36 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 8 Aug 2018 08:54:36 -0500 (EST) X-Mailinglist: mandoc-source Reply-To: source@mandoc.bsd.lv MIME-Version: 1.0 From: schwarze@mandoc.bsd.lv To: source@mandoc.bsd.lv Subject: mandoc: After years of deliberation, finally provide a clear X-Mailer: activitymail 1.26, http://search.cpan.org/dist/activitymail/ Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Message-Id: Log Message: ----------- 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@ Modified Files: -------------- mandoc: mandoc_char.7 Revision Data ------------- Index: mandoc_char.7 =================================================================== RCS file: /home/cvs/mandoc/mandoc/mandoc_char.7,v retrieving revision 1.68 retrieving revision 1.69 diff -Lmandoc_char.7 -Lmandoc_char.7 -u -p -r1.68 -r1.69 --- mandoc_char.7 +++ mandoc_char.7 @@ -63,9 +63,9 @@ names; instead, provide ASCII transcript .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 suppor 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 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, -- To unsubscribe send an email to source+unsubscribe@mandoc.bsd.lv