CVSROOT: /cvs
Module name: src
Changes by: bent...@cvs.openbsd.org 2015/08/31 19:19:46
Modified files:
share/man/man7 : mandoc_char.7
Log message:
Recommend an unambiguous escape for minus signs instead of \-.
Historically, \- was used in troff for three cases: flags/pathnames,
en dashes, and minus signs. mandoc_char(7) currently recommends it
for minus signs, recommends \(en for en dashes, and doesn't mention
flags/pathnames.
In the old days, nroff rendered \- as ASCII '-', and troff rendered
it as en dash/minus (which were visually indistinguishable).
In Unicode, en dashes and minus signs are semantically distinct and
encoded differently (U+2013 for en dash, U+2212 for minus), and
often rendered differently too. Meanwhile ASCII '-' has been renamed
"hyphen-minus" and fonts typically render it closest to a hyphen, not
a minus.
There is very little consistency across roff implementations and output
formats for what Unicode character \- corresponds to. So at least for
minus signs, change the recommendation to the unambiguous \(mi escape.
ok jmc@ (after reams of discussion)
