Follow-up Comment #3, bug #67693 (group groff): Hi Dave,
At 2025-11-21T21:06:08-0500, Dave wrote:
> Follow-up Comment #2, bug #67693 (group groff):
>
> People with far more typographical expertise than me have defended
> "point size" as an accepted term of art. (See comment #1.) But it's
> also worth looking at grammatically.
>
> "Point size" seems to mean "size of a point," similar to how "rock
> size" would mean "size of a rock." In this conventional parsing of
> this phrase, the term does seem nonsensical, since a point is a unit
> of measurement: it's akin to saying "inch size."
I share this reasoning.
> But, although not idiomatic, the phrase "what is the inch size of that
> rock?" could be taken to mean "what is the size of that rock in
> inches?" Similarly, "point size" could, instead of "size of a point,"
> mean "size in points." And this usage is very much idiomatic in
> typography.
The only place this usage seems to persist in _groff_ outside of our
"contrib" directory is in Allman's "meintro.me" document, which remains
largely as he composed in the 1980s (or late 1970s, even).
I am unwilling to undertake a revision of this point--if you
will--except alongside much more sigificant changes to the document that
substanially alter its creditable authorship.
In other words, I'm not going to armchair-quarterback Eric Allman's call
on the play until a running back appears to take the handoff and advance
the ball well down the field.
(The sound you hear is the spontaneous evaporation of this ticket's
entire present and future audience outside of Anglophone North America.)
> It also results in a small efficiency: it requires one less word to
> say "The point size is 12" than "The type size is 12 points."
For my part, I find that efficiency gain negligible. But I also don't
want _groff_ documentation to pretend that some typographers really do
speak in the former manner.
> So I'll close this ticket unless someone objects.
None from me.
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