From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 30 13:13:04 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E0A7816A41B for ; Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:13:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5592713C4C6 for ; Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:13:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: from kobe.laptop (vader.bytemobile-rio.ondsl.gr [83.235.57.37]) (authenticated bits=128) by igloo.linux.gr (8.14.1/8.14.1/Debian-9) with ESMTP id l9UDCc5E031420 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:12:52 +0200 Received: from kobe.laptop (kobe.laptop [127.0.0.1]) by kobe.laptop (8.14.1/8.14.1) with ESMTP id l9UDCH5b091234; Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:12:32 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: (from keramida@localhost) by kobe.laptop (8.14.1/8.14.1/Submit) id l9UDCHf7091233; Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:12:17 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:12:17 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Tim Kientzle Message-ID: <20071030131216.GB91078@kobe.laptop> References: <4726A890.5090705@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4726A890.5090705@freebsd.org> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (not cached, score=-4.119, required 5, autolearn=not spam, ALL_TRUSTED -1.80, AWL 0.28, BAYES_00 -2.60) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@freebsd.org X-Spam-Status: No Cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: -mdoc vs. -man X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:13:05 -0000 On 2007-10-29 20:44, Tim Kientzle wrote: > I've had some requests from people who want to use the libarchive and > bsdtar manpages on non-BSD systems that don't support -mdoc. > > Any problems if I reworked these manpages to only require -man-old for > compatibility with these systems? (Other than the inherent > tediousness of such a project, that is.) Yes. At least from me. The -mdoc macro set is not only easier to grok than plain -man, but it produces consistently "prettier" output, with an emphasis on the semantic mark-up of manpage elements instead of manual, tedious formatting-related markup. For example, we don't use \f(CWpath\fR in -mdoc to denote pathnames, so that they are are printed with a constant-width font; we use ".Pa path". We don't have to manually track macro arguments and type stuff like: .IP "\-\fIdebug\fR[=[\fIon\fR|\fIverbose\fR|\fIoff\fR]]" .IX "\-\fIdebug\fR[=[\fIon\fR|\fIverbose\fR|\fIoff\fR]]" and so on... Although I understand the pains of people who don't have groff or -mdoc, I'd be a bit sorry if we switched from -mdoc to -man and started writing with the "old school" style of \fIitalic\fR and friends :( - Giorgos