Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> I can't reproduce what you're saying about hyphens vs. minus
> signs with regard to cutting and pasting to the command line.
> I use acrobat reader to view a PDF version of your document.
> When I copy your first example to the command line, my acrobat
> translates the minus signs (internally coded as "AD") to spaces.
> In your second example, the hyphens (coded as "2D") retain their
> encoding as "2D" (hyphen/minus in ASCII) and are thus copied
> correctly to the command line.
Indeed. This mapping of \- vs. - does not look optimal, regarding
copy&paste.
Input:
\- -
MINUS SIGN HYPHEN
Output with older groff (1.17.2 or so):
groff -Tutf8 U+2212 U+2010
MINUS SIGN HYPHEN
Output with the current groff CVS:
groff -Tutf8 U+2212 U+002D
MINUS SIGN HYPHEN-MINUS
groff -Thtml U+2212 U+002D
MINUS SIGN HYPHEN-MINUS
groff -Tdvi, U+002D U+002D
dvipdf, acroread5, HYPHEN-MINUS HYPHEN-MINUS
copy & paste
groff -Tps, U+00AD U+002D
ps2pdf, acroread5, SOFT HYPHEN HYPHEN-MINUS
copy & paste
So what you can see:
1) - (HYPHEN) does not produce a hyphen character in any of the 4 cases.
2) \- (MINUS SIGN), in the utf8 and html cases, produces a character that
looks very similar to the one produced by - (HYPHEN) but is not well
usable in copy&paste (since many programs don't understand U+2212). So
people conclude that they need to use - (HYPHEN) when they want a
copy&pastable minus sign.
3) Copy & paste from a PDF document can produce a SOFT HYPHEN.
What sense does this all make??
Sorry for reviving this discussion, but the current status appears worse
than the one in or around 1.17.2.
Bruno
