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author | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2013-12-26 17:23:42 +0000 |
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committer | Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org> | 2013-12-26 17:23:42 +0000 |
commit | 35061f8c0fddd0fd2d0a0efbf19268b66a4d75d3 (patch) | |
tree | b4c60c929b2f1dba27524a745daddee0238a9778 | |
parent | 419b1431ddf0509fe1ae712ace879e075f41b531 (diff) | |
download | mandoc-35061f8c0fddd0fd2d0a0efbf19268b66a4d75d3.tar.gz |
Rework the documentation of Spaces, using the Ossanna/Kernighan/Ritter
Heirloom Nroff/Troff User's Manual at the authoritative reference.
Part of our text was outright wrong.
Also, refrain from advertising the paddable non-breaking space `\~'
in the DESCRIPTION, for three reasons: For nroff mode, -Tascii, and
fixed width fonts in general, it makes no difference, so keep the
discussion simple. Compared to `\ ', '\~' is of questionable portability.
And if you want to keep words together, it is also more usual that you
don't want padding to intervene either.
Finally, drop the `\c' escape sequence (interrupt text processing)
which is not a special character but an input processing instruction
akin to the \<newline> escape sequence.
-rw-r--r-- | mandoc_char.7 | 40 |
1 files changed, 20 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/mandoc_char.7 b/mandoc_char.7 index f6c6e79e..be55f99c 100644 --- a/mandoc_char.7 +++ b/mandoc_char.7 @@ -98,26 +98,27 @@ in literal context, and when none of the following special cases apply, just use the normal space character .Pq Sq \ . .Pp -When filling text, lines may be broken between words, i.e. at space +When filling text, output lines may be broken between words, i.e. at space characters. To prevent a line break between two particular words, -use the non-breaking space escape sequence -.Pq Sq \e~ +use the unpaddable non-breaking space escape sequence +.Pq Sq \e\ \& instead of the normal space character. For example, the input string -.Dq number\e~1 +.Dq number\e\ 1 will be kept together as -.Dq number\~1 +.Dq number\ 1 on the same output line. .Pp On request and macro lines, the normal space character serves as an argument delimiter. -To include whitespace into arguments, quoting is usually the best choice. -In some cases, using either the non-breaking -.Pq Sq \e~ -or the breaking +To include whitespace into arguments, quoting is usually the best choice; +see the MACRO SYNTAX section in +.Xr roff 7 . +In some cases, using the non-breaking space escape sequence .Pq Sq \e\ \& -space escape sequence may be preferable. +may be preferable. +.Pp To escape macro names and to protect whitespace at the end of input lines, the zero-width space .Pq Sq \e& @@ -194,14 +195,13 @@ manual. Spacing: .Bl -column "Input" "Description" -offset indent -compact .It Em Input Ta Em Description -.It \e~ Ta non-breaking, non-collapsing space -.It \e Ta breaking, non-collapsing n-width space -.It \e^ Ta zero-width space -.It \e% Ta zero-width space +.It Sq \e\ \& Ta unpaddable non-breaking space +.It \e~ Ta paddable non-breaking space +.It \e0 Ta unpaddable, breaking digit-width space +.It \e| Ta one-sixth \e(em narrow space, zero width in nroff mode +.It \e^ Ta one-twelfth \e(em half-narrow space, zero width in nroff .It \e& Ta zero-width space -.It \e| Ta zero-width space -.It \e0 Ta breaking, non-collapsing digit-width space -.It \ec Ta removes any trailing space (if applicable) +.It \e% Ta zero-width space allowing hyphenation .El .Pp Lines: @@ -661,7 +661,7 @@ The escape sequences .Pp are interpreted as Unicode codepoints. The codepoint must be in the range above U+0080 and less than U+10FFFF. -For compatibility, the hexadecimal digits +For compatibility, the hexadecimal digits .Sq A to .Sq F @@ -735,9 +735,9 @@ The manual page was written by .An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv . .Sh CAVEATS -The +The predefined string .Sq \e*(Ba -escape mimics the behaviour of the +mimics the behaviour of the .Sq \&| character in .Xr mdoc 7 ; |