bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #64494, explain practical usage of 'm' and...

 
 

bug #64494: explain practical usage of 'm' and 'n' scaling units better

Submitter:  Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>
Submitted:  Sun 30 Jul 2023 02:43:24 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  General Severity:  2 - Minor
Item Group:  Documentation Status:  Confirmed
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  gbranden
Open/Closed:  Open Planned Release:  None
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Sun 18 Aug 2024 12:04:05 PM UTC, comment #2: 

I think the general idea here is that ems are used more for typeface-relative measurements and that ens are used more for measuring runs of text.

When dealing with proportional type, ens are useful in approximation, whereas ems are more precise, which is probably why formatter requests that take horizontal measurements as arguments tend to use `m` as a default scaling unit rather than `n`.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Fri 04 Aug 2023 06:54:13 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Dropping patch annotation; I am rejecting this patch because the underlying language is not strictly correct.

groff(7):

    m   Em; an em is equal to the current type size in points.
    n   En; an en is one‐half em.


However it does behoove us to explain to mdoc(7) man page authors what these units mean, more along the lines of how they're explained above (the same language appears in "groff.texi").

I also see the opportunity to explain a usage distinction between ems and ens, namely to answer the question of why we have both when could "just" multiply by 2 or ½, depending, and ensure that this explanation occurs where necessary.

Retitling.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sun 30 Jul 2023 02:43:24 PM UTC, original submission:  

From 374432c7f3e9542fff80d20ad14b1223767ec0d2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@simnet.is>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2023 14:34:10 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] groff_mdoc.7.man: units 'm' and 'n' are named after
 the upper case letters

File: tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man

  The upper case letters 'M' and 'N' are usually broader than their
lower case versions.

  The letter 'M' is usually the broadest one.

Signed-off-by: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@simnet.is>
---
 tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man | 12 ++++++------
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
index d39062516..c9b5a2e0e 100644
--- a/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
+++ b/tmac/groff_mdoc.7.man
@@ -3986,9 +3986,9 @@ and
 .Em "En square" .
 .
 This is approximately the width of the letters
-.Sq m
+.Sq M
 and
-.Sq n
+.Sq N
 respectively
 of the current font
 (for
@@ -4579,9 +4579,9 @@ specifying the so-called
 and
 .Em "En square" .
 This is approximately the width of the letters
-.Sq m
+.Sq M
 and
-.Sq n
+.Sq N
 respectively
 of the current font
 (for
@@ -4631,9 +4631,9 @@ and
 .Em "En square" .
 .
 This is approximately the width of the letters
-.Sq m
+.Sq M
 and
-.Sq n
+.Sq N
 respectively
 of the current font
 (for
--
2.40.1


Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>

 

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  • -email is unavailable- added by gbranden (Updated the item)
  • -email is unavailable- added by bjarniig (Submitted the item)
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    Follow 7 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2023-08-04 gbranden StatusNone Confirmed
        Assigned toNone gbranden
        Summary[PATCH] groff_mdoc(7): units 'm' and 'n' are named after the upper case letters explain practical usage of 'm' and 'n' scaling units better
    2023-07-31 barx Carbon-Copy- Added barx
    2023-07-30 gbranden Summary[PATCH] groff_mdoc.7.man: units 'm' and 'n' are named after the upper case letters [PATCH] groff_mdoc(7): units 'm' and 'n' are named after the upper case letters
    2023-07-30 gbranden Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
    2023-07-30 bjarniig Attached File- Added 0001-Subject-groff_mdoc.7.man-units-m-and-n-are-named-after.txt, #54999

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