On Fri, 10 Nov 2023 18:08:51 -0600 "G. Branden Robinson" <g.branden.robin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > it's not a "symbol", in that it doesn't stand for anything but > > itself. > > (Careful now, or the shambling zombie of Jacques Derrida is going to > kick down the door and subject us all to a fate worse than being > subjected to necrocannibalism: a lecture in semiotics.) Not that it matters, but I might not understand my assertion well enough to understand your joke. :-) > > And I don't want it to appear in boldface, because it needs no > > emphasis.) > > That's in contrast to the conventions of synopsis as elsewhere > documented, though. ... > while the macro languages for > constructing man pages may differ, their output generally should not Buit of course they do, as you know. And it's a matter of opinion whether or not the differences matter to the reader's understanding. For example, compare the synopses (?) of strcpy(3) with vis(3). One is man, the other mdoc. I think the argument over what should be bold and what should be italics predates Unix System III. --jkl
