Hi Alex, At 2022-08-05T21:40:06+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > On 8/5/22 21:20, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > I'm wondering if we should really be setting the dereferencing > > operator in italics here. > > > > In declarations, the star is part of the _type_, not the identifier. > > Similarly, in expressions, the star is an operator, like "+", not > > part of the identifier. > > Let me escape out of this a bit sideways :P > > *foo, as a whole, is an expression, consisting of an operator and an > identifier. So I won't apply identifier rules for highlighting, but > expression rules. The rules for marking expressions up are: > > man-pages(7): > Formatting conventions (general) > [...] > > Expressions, if not written on a separate indented line, > should be specified in italics. Again, the use of non‐ > breaking spaces may be appropriate if the expression is > inlined with normal text. Ahhh. I had just reviewed that page while pondering a bunch of miscellaneous suggestions I might craft into a patch series, but the foregoing utterly failed to sink in. > And the deep rationale why I would like to avoid having the star in a > different font is that it could be confused with the glob-like > expressions that we use for example to refer to SYS_* macros. That makes sense. I think instead of adopting glob syntax, I would use quotation, but quotation in man(7) is so awkward that many people act like it's unavailable. This is just one of many reasons I think man(7) should have a `Q` macro to facilitate it. > Did I dodge the bullet? I think so. :) Regards, Branden
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