tags 516808 fixed-upstream thanks On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 08:27:23PM +0100, Kristoffer Fossgård wrote: > Package: man-db > > Hi, in the man manpage there is the line: > > " > italic text replace with appropriate argument. > " > > The problem however is that *no* manpage reader on the terminal > actually implements italic text(italic = /slanted/ text. In no case > does it mean _underlined_ text.) The first time i did $ man man this > was very confusing to me, and because of that, iv'e just recently > understood how to read a manpage correctly even though iv'e written a > bunch of scripts now, I've wished i understood it better sooner. > > One could think that it is not important to amend this line because, > one could always do, $ man -Hbrowsername, but that unfortunately > requires more manpage reading and we should be nice with newbies :-) > (plus, it doesn't actually work 100% here, urk.) > > So therefore I propose something like: > > " > italic text replace with appropriate argument. (note that no > shell-based readers actually supports italic(/slanted/ text), and > therefore interprets `italic' as, _underlined_, bold and/or > colored. > "
Thanks for your suggestion. I've done this a bit differently since line-wrapped entries in a tbl table are painful (i.e. you probably can do them but I forget how ...) and in any case I want to be a little vague about exactly how groff might choose to render things. I added the following text after the table: Exact rendering may vary depending on the output device. For instance, man will usually not be able to render italics when running in a terminal, and will typically use underlined or coloured text instead. Sun Jun 28 16:33:24 BST 2009 Colin Watson <[email protected]> * man/man1/man.man1 (DESCRIPTION): Note that the exact rendering of (e.g.) italic text may vary depending on the output device (Debian bug #516808). -- Colin Watson [[email protected]] -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
