Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-08-29 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Package: python3-docutils Version: 0.17.1+dfsg-2 Severity: normal File: /usr/bin/rst2man Tags: upstream X-Debbugs-Cc: alx.manpa...@gmail.com, groff@gnu.org, Quentin Monnet Hi, When rst2man has no information to generate the 5th field to the .TH macro (the one that sets the title line, i.e., th

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-08-30 Thread Douglas McIlroy
An empty field conveys as much information as the uninformative default, "Miscellaneous Information Manual", with less clutter. I recommend abolishing the default. Doug

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-05 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Dmitry, On 9/5/22 18:42, Dmitry Shachnev wrote: Hi Alejandro! On Mon, Aug 29, 2022 at 09:14:26PM +0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote: Package: python3-docutils Version: 0.17.1+dfsg-2 Severity: normal File: /usr/bin/rst2man Tags: upstream X-Debbugs-Cc: alx.manpa...@gmail.com, groff@gnu.org, Quent

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Doug, On 8/30/22 23:14, Douglas McIlroy wrote: An empty field conveys as much information as the uninformative default, "Miscellaneous Information Manual", with less clutter. I recommend abolishing the default. Agree, the section number already provides a good default information (and for

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread G. Branden Robinson
Hi Doug & Alex, At 2022-08-30T17:14:31-0400, Douglas McIlroy wrote: > An empty field conveys as much information as the uninformative > default, "Miscellaneous Information Manual", with less clutter. I > recommend abolishing the default. I'm reluctant to do this because it breaks the orthogonalit

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Branden, On 9/6/22 21:13, G. Branden Robinson wrote: Hi Doug & Alex, At 2022-08-30T17:14:31-0400, Douglas McIlroy wrote: An empty field conveys as much information as the uninformative default, "Miscellaneous Information Manual", with less clutter. I recommend abolishing the default. I'm

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread Alejandro Colomar
On 9/6/22 21:35, Alejandro Colomar wrote:   Most if not all readers of manual pages will know the meaning of those little numbers.  The few that don't, are probably using man(1) for the first time in their lives, and it will kindly hint that they should read man(1), Of course, I referred to:

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread G. Branden Robinson
Hi Alex, At 2022-09-06T21:43:28+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > On 9/6/22 21:35, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > >   Most if not all readers of manual pages will know the meaning of > > those little numbers.  The few that don't, are probably using > > man(1) for the first time in their lives, and i

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2022-09-06 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Branden, On 9/6/22 22:42, G. Branden Robinson wrote: Hi Alex, At 2022-09-06T21:43:28+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote: On 9/6/22 21:35, Alejandro Colomar wrote:   Most if not all readers of manual pages will know the meaning of those little numbers.  The few that don't, are probably using

Re: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty

2023-07-18 Thread G. Branden Robinson
Hi Alex, At 2022-09-07T00:13:18+0200, Alejandro Colomar wrote: >> "Those types are not 'abstract'--they are as real as int and float." >> -- guess who? > > :p By the way, an actual link to the context of the quote would be > nice. I've only found copies of the quote without context. Where did

Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-16 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Branden! On 9/7/22 00:13, Alejandro Colomar wrote: I've seen sporadically references to the numbers as chapters, probably from when the manual was a proper book, but that term seems to have fallen in use. I don't recall seeing this.  While not my preference, I would regard it as an excusabl

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-16 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Andries! On 11/17/22 00:40, Andries E. Brouwer wrote: On 9/7/22 00:13, Alejandro Colomar wrote: I've seen sporadically references to the numbers as chapters, probably from when the manual was a proper book, but that term seems to have fallen in use. Unix Programmer's Manual (4.2 BSD) Aug

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-16 Thread Andries E. Brouwer
> On 9/7/22 00:13, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > > > > I've seen sporadically references to the numbers as chapters, probably > > > > from when the manual was a proper book, but that term seems to have > > > > fallen in use. Unix Programmer's Manual (4.2 BSD) August, 1983 Volume 1 Chapter I: Comman

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-16 Thread Alejandro Colomar
r of the page seems to be Michael Haardt; his last commit to the man-pages is from 2015, so I guess his email is still active. Maybe he can comment. I also CCed aeb and mtk, as they maintained the pages before me and may know if that term was in use at the time. Cheers, Alex

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-17 Thread Ralph Corderoy
Hi Alejandro, > 'chapter' definitely makes more sense, at least considering the manual > as a book. Since it seems to have been in general use in the past, > it's not so much of a breaking change to start using it now again. Yes it is a breaking. This is a terrible idea. Colin Watson's man(1)

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-11-17 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Ralph, On 11/17/22 12:58, Ralph Corderoy wrote: Hi Alejandro, 'chapter' definitely makes more sense, at least considering the manual as a book. Since it seems to have been in general use in the past, it's not so much of a breaking change to start using it now again. Yes it is a breaking.

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread Colin Watson
[Sorry for the delay; a succession of business travel, holidays, and Covid have together eaten up much of my time recently.] On Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 01:28:12AM +0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > On 11/17/22 01:06, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > I think the adoption of the term (sub)chapter has a po

Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Colin! On 12/12/22 14:39, Colin Watson wrote: [Sorry for the delay; a succession of business travel, holidays, and Covid have together eaten up much of my time recently.] On Thu, Nov 17, 2022 at 01:28:12AM +0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote: On 11/17/22 01:06, G. Branden Robinson wrote: I thin

Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-11 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi! This is a gentle ping about my terminological reforms about manual page chapters. Cheers, Alex Forwarded Message Subject: Re: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty) Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2022 01:28:12

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-11 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Michael, On 12/11/22 20:05, Michael Haardt wrote: I just checked what is easily available to me: > v7 calls them sections in intro pages, but chapters in man(1) and man(7). Celerity Computing UNIX (looks like a BSD port) calls them sections in intro pages and man(7), but chapter in manv(7) (

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-11 Thread Michael Haardt
> Admittedly, it's hard to defend my proposal as _necessary_. Especially after > the world has lived for decades with the ambiguity of having chapters as > sections and sections also as... sections. Well, one are the volume sections and the other manpage sections. :) Originally, Unix documenta

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-11 Thread Michael Haardt
I just checked what is easily available to me: v7 calls them sections in intro pages, but chapters in man(1) and man(7). Celerity Computing UNIX (looks like a BSD port) calls them sections in intro pages and man(7), but chapter in manv(7) (dtroff version of man(7)). SunOS 4.1.1 calls them sectio

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-11 Thread Douglas McIlroy
A nice property of "section" is that it's recursive--applies to any level of a hierarchy--so you don't have to struggle to keep level-specific terminology straight. Doug On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 2:21 PM Alejandro Colomar wrote: > > Hi Michael, > > On 12/11/22 20:05, Michael Haardt wrote: > > I ju

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread Ralph Corderoy
Hi Michael, > I don't see a good reason to break an established term and instead > suggest to follow the above and s/chapter/section/g. man(1), apropos(1), and other commands use -s to specify sections and many finger muscles won't change now. -- Cheers, Ralph.

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread Alejandro Colomar
Hi Doug, On 12/12/22 01:34, Douglas McIlroy wrote: A nice property of "section" is that it's recursive--applies to any level of a hierarchy--so you don't have to struggle to keep level-specific terminology straight. Doug Hmm, since the concerns expressed by Ralph seem to be at least as itchy

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread G. Branden Robinson
Hi Alex, At 2022-12-11T17:40:10+0100, Alejandro Colomar wrote: > This is a gentle ping about my terminological reforms about manual > page chapters. [...] > Hi Colin, Ingo, and Branden, > On 11/17/22 01:06, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > > I think the adoption of the term (sub)chapter has a potenti

Re: Ping^1: Chapters of the manual (was: Bug#1018737: /usr/bin/rst2man: rst2man: .TH 5th field shouldn't be empty)

2022-12-12 Thread Andries E. Brouwer
On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 07:19:22AM -0600, G. Branden Robinson wrote: > The 4.2BSD provenance is particularly valuable, in that it illustrates > how the terminology was retained Earlier I replied and showed a snapshot of the history. Contemporary: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi All Sections