Hi Alex, On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 at 19:19, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) <alx.manpages@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On 1/22/21 4:13 PM, Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) wrote: > > Hi Alex, > > > > On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 at 13:37, Alejandro Colomar (man-pages) > > <alx.manpages@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: [...] > >>> That was a very interesting read. > >>> I got why you tend to use "xxxx (xxxx.)" and not "xxxx (xxxx).", > > > > Sorry... I don't understand what you are referring to in the previous line. > > It has happened already a few times that you corrected a patch of mine > (or you corrected the corrections I sent to others' patches), because of > using "... foo)." and you changed it to be "... foo.)" (see > <c73ca93d-b723-adc1-0603-4c7f9ecc458e@xxxxxxxxx>) as an example). I don't know what the reference you cite resolves to... > >>> the latter being _much_ more common in Spanish (and other languages) > >>> (actually, I've never read the former in Spanish). > >> > >> Hey Michael, > >> > >> Ping! > >> > >> I'm still very interested in knowing your thoughts about the Hacker > >> Writing Style from the Jargon File, and more specifically about the > >> so-called `new' or `logical' quoting method[1]. Especially you being > >> both a hacker and a writer :-). > >> > >> [1]: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html > > > > So, I regard the Jargon File and HWS as no real authority on anything, > > and I'm not even sure we should refer to them in a manual page. Much > > of the writing there is rather polemical. But, that said... > > > > I don't regard it as an authority either, and yes, it's unnecessarily > polemical, but there are still some entries that have some useful > information, like this one about the different quoting methods, IMHO. [...] > > Like many programmers, I find the Logical Style, ahhh, logical. And in > > a fixed-width font, the visual argument for putting periods and commas > > inside the quotes (the American style) doesn't apply. The > > counterargument is that in most every other aspect, man-pages follows > > American conventions. > > For that counterpart I'd argue an easy one: we already made some > rational exceptions, such as s/dgment/dgement/ ;-). I knew you'd do that ;-). > > I imagine that in man-pages there's a mix of both styles, since I'm > > not sure if I've ever taken care about this. > > > > Yes, there is. > > > So, what to do... Given that man-pages are primarily rendered to > > fix-width displays, and the confusion that can sometimes occur in a > > technical context if following the American style, I would not oppose > > switching everything British/Logical style. > > > > Maybe others have opinions to offer. > > I strongly vote for the European quoting method, for logical reasons. > Pun intended :-). I'm okay with making the switch to Logical Style. > >> BTW, I should remind myself to fix the link in uri.7. > > > > I'd be inclined to remove the URL. Mention of the Logical Style in > > Hart's rules and the British style is good enough, I think. > > I'm not against keeping the link, but I wouldn't oppose a removal either. I removed it. Thanks, Michael
