Follow-up Comment #5, bug#65101 (group groff):
I won't wade into the minutiae of man-page rendering, but I'll address some
larger points.
[comment #4 comment #4:]
> Why do you consider "all the manuals must look the same, by
> force, regardless of what the authors have written" a goal?
This is how typesetting is done in the modern world. If you contribute a
chapter to a book of technical documentation, the publisher will feel free to
tweak your submission to conform to house style, so that the entire book has a
consistent style. This is for the benefit of readers, who can locate and
process information more easily if it's presented consistently.
And man-page formatting only concerns itself with matters of typography. In
the above hypothetical anthology, editors would also change an author's
punctuation (e.g., to ensure consistency of use of the serial comma), spelling
(e.g., to make the entire book use either US or UK spellings), and other
aspects. Real-world publishing is a collaborative process, and the original
author's words and rendering are not sacrosanct.
But to address this in the context of man pages: presenting things
consistently is far more valuable to readers than preserving individual
authors' typesetting preferences.
> as the god-king of groff
I wonder if you can cite an instance of Branden doing what he wanted in the
face of consensus to the contrary. That would be god-king behavior.
Gathering consensus and implementing it is project-manager behavior.
> not challenged by downstream maintainers because of the, as you
> say, moribundity of the subject matter and you being seen as an
> expert.
The groff email list has its share of experts in typography (including people
who have done it professionally) and the history of man pages (including one
who helped develop the original nroff). These people aren't shy about
expressing contrary opinions. If Branden is seen as an expert in this
community, it's because he's demonstrated some level of expertise.
Comments on this bug tracker reach a pretty small audience; it'd be a fairer
test of where consensus lies if you posted your grievances with -man's current
behavior on the email list (groff at gnu.org), where they'd reach a much wider
audience.
_______________________________________________________
Reply to this item at:
<https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?65101>
_______________________________________________
Message sent via Savannah
https://savannah.gnu.org/
