gbranden pushed a commit to branch master
in repository groff.
commit 4f70bd8a1806f07a4d35b17903e60868c4269558
Author: G. Branden Robinson <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Sat Jan 3 19:43:28 2026 -0600
groff_man*(7): Accommodate 65n-wide terminals.
I preach the virtue of fitting one's man pages (as rendered) within the
old AT&T troff nroff width of 65n to others (and it _is_ a good
idea[1]), so I should practice it.
* Describe `HP` macro more tersely in introductory table.
* That table is still too fat, so "dedent" it (to use Eric Allman's
term) by 3 ens if in nroff mode and the line length is less than 68
ens.
* Employ the same trick for the table presenting exhibits of poor idioms
and our suggested replacements, this time if the line length is less
than 72 ens, because this table's a chonk. I couldn't see how to
recast its material without risking loss of clarity, though.
* Employ the same trick for the example of why one would suppress
sentence-ending detection even in an `EX`/`EE` example. This time,
we're already using calling `RS` to inset, so give it an argument--but
only if in nroff mode and the line length is less than 68 ens.
Fixes:
$ nroff -tz -rLL=65n -man ./build/tmac/groff_man_style.7
./build/tmac/groff_man_style.7:99: warning: table wider than line length
minus indentation
./build/tmac/groff_man_style.7:4167: warning: table wider than line length
minus indentation
[1] see, e.g., https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability
To be fair, even at 80n the line lengths actually presented to the
reader by man(7) are shorter; nearly all material is indented.
---
tmac/groff_man.7.man.in | 13 +++++++++++--
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in b/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in
index b20a910dd..8b7fc23f7 100644
--- a/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in
+++ b/tmac/groff_man.7.man.in
@@ -163,6 +163,7 @@ typesetting system.
_endif()dnl
.P
.if t .vs 11.75p \" begin hideous cheat for U.S. letter paper
+.if n .if \n[LL]<68n .RS -3n \" begin shameless cheat for slim terminals
.TS
l l l.
Macro Meaning Subsection
@@ -174,7 +175,7 @@ _
\&.BR Bold, roman alternating Font style macros
\&.EE Example end Document structure macros
\&.EX Example begin Document structure macros
-\&.HP Begin paragraph with hanging indent Paragraphing macros
+\&.HP Begin hanging paragraph Paragraphing macros
\&.I Italic Font style macros
\&.IB Italic, bold alternating Font style macros
\&.IP Indented paragraph Paragraphing macros
@@ -200,6 +201,7 @@ _
\&.UR URI start Hyperlink macros
\&.YS Synopsis end Synopsis macros
.TE
+.if n .if \n[LL]<68n .RE \" end shameless cheat for slim terminals
.if t .vs \" end hideous cheat for U.S. letter paper
.
.
@@ -4319,6 +4321,7 @@ often a shorter or clearer alternative is available.
.
.
.IP
+.if n .if \n[LL]<72n .RS -4n \" begin shameless cheat for slim terminals
.if t .ne 10v
.if n .ne 16v \" account for horizontal rules
.TS
@@ -4342,6 +4345,7 @@ _
_
\&.B one two \[dq]\[dq] three .B one two three
.TE
+.if n .if \n[LL]<68n .RE \" end shameless cheat for slim terminals
.
.
.IP
@@ -4747,7 +4751,12 @@ escape sequence to interpolate the quotation mark
strings.
.
.
.P
-.RS
+.\" begin shameless cheat for slim terminals
+.ds Indent \" empty
+.if n .if \n[LL]<68n .ds Indent 2n
+.RS \*[Indent]
+.rm Indent
+.\" end shameless cheat for slim terminals
.EX
The command
\&.RB \[rs]*(oq "while !\[rs]& git pull; do sleep 10; done" \[rs]*(cq
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