bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #61432, [docs] correct explanations of...

 
 

bug #61432: [docs] correct explanations of units em, en, and vee

Submitter:  Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>
Submitted:  Sat 06 Nov 2021 01:08:26 AM UTC
   
 
Category:  General Severity:  3 - Normal
Item Group:  Documentation Status:  Fixed
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  gbranden
Open/Closed:  Closed Planned Release:  1.23.0
* Mandatory Fields

Add a New Comment Rich Markup
   

Jump to the original submission

Sun 11 Sep 2022 12:18:21 PM UTC, comment #6: 


commit ba43e047bd78d686a750cf86348ae40c32ab1340
Author: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Sep 3 20:11:02 2022 -0500

    [docs]: Revise discussion of measurements.

    * doc/groff.texi: Drop Texinfo @codequote* command brackets around
      revised sections; relevant nodes have been reviewed for correct glyph
      usage.  Move concept index entries for obsolescent term "machine
      units" to same location as "basic units".  Bump document date.

      (Measurements): Rewrite presentation.  We have already introduced page
      geometry concepts, including the concept of basic units.

      (Motion Quanta): New subsection node; introduce this concept much
      sooner, right after measurement units.  Relocate documentation of `.H`
      and `.V` registers from a miscellaneous read-only register list here.
      Introduce example of rounding to horizontal motion quantum.

      (Default Units): Revise discussion.  Stop abusing @result notation in
      example.  Revise example.

      (Built-In Registers): Relocate `.H` and `.V` as above.

    * man/groff.7.man: Sync with Texinfo content updates.

    Fixes <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?61432>.  Thanks to Bjarni
    Ingi Gislason for the report.


G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sun 11 Sep 2022 12:17:54 PM UTC, comment #5: 


commit 63a236aa496741e30304e45f39f830ac229e7c3a
Author: G. Branden Robinson <g.branden.robinson@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Sep 3 19:31:00 2022 -0500

    doc/ms.ms: Fix error in "n" unit definition.

    An en might be the width of an "n", but it is _defined_ as one-half em.

    Also fix proffered definition of "v"; it doesn't rely on the selected
    font, but the configured vertical spacing.

    Fixes part of Savannah #61432.


G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sun 04 Sep 2022 01:10:10 AM UTC, comment #4: 

Dropping "[PATCH]" annotation and slightly broadening scope to include vees.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sat 03 Sep 2022 11:36:17 AM UTC, comment #3: 

comment #2:

> The former hunk is something I already have revision pending
> for, but will add the upcasing of the quoted "m".
>
> The latter hunk is also a good catch, but I aim to recast that
> item even further.  The page has a tendency to use fractions
> ungrammatically.


These changes to man/groff.7.man were addressed in commit 035e01bb.

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Mon 24 Jan 2022 12:59:19 AM UTC, comment #2: 

comment #1:

> I agree, it's important to clarify that an en is by definition half an em, and its relation to the size of the letter n is more rule of thumb.
>
> In the line of doc/groff.texi changed by this patch, I would also be tempted to remove the italics on "approximately," as it's not clear what extra information that imparts.  Is an italic "approximately" somehow more approximate than a roman one?


These points are both well taken.

Regarding the chunks of Bjarni's patch:


diff --git a/doc/groff.texi b/doc/groff.texi
index 6ee4a199..b9eb0e1b 100644
--- a/doc/groff.texi
+++ b/doc/groff.texi
@@ -5508,7 +5508,7 @@ specifying measurements that should look proper with any size of text.
 @cindex @code{m} unit
 @cindex unit, @code{m}
 Ems.  This unit is equal to the current font size in points.  So called
-because it is @emph{approximately} the width of the letter@tie{}@samp{m}
+because it is @emph{approximately} the width of the letter@tie{}@samp{M}
 in the current font.

 @item n


Fair point--I see that the term is traditionally defined in terms of the capital letter.


diff --git a/doc/ms.ms b/doc/ms.ms
index 08c5c01e..ac530b2d 100644
--- a/doc/ms.ms
+++ b/doc/ms.ms
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ The following table summarizes typical units.
 .
 .TS
 box center;
-cb cb
+cb lb
 cf(CR) l .
 Unit        Description
 _
@@ -152,8 +152,8 @@ c        centimeters
 p        points (1/72\[sd])
 P        picas (1/6\[sd])
 v        \[lq]vees\[rq]; height of a line using the current font
-n        \[lq]ens\[rq]; width of an \[lq]n\[rq] using the current font
-m        \[lq]ems\[rq]; width of an \[lq]M\[rq] using the current font
+m        \[lq]ems\[rq]; type size of the font; approx. width of an \[lq]M\[rq]
+n        \[lq]ens\[rq]; same as em/2; approx. width of an \[lq]n\[rq]
 .TE
 .
 .


This one, I don't like as much.  The realignment of the column heading is fine, but I don't think the (mostly) copy-and-paste from groff(7) to here is helpful.  I have changes to the units/measurement sections of groff(7) and roff(7) pending, and will try to align ms.ms with those.


diff --git a/man/groff.7.man b/man/groff.7.man
index cbc0f53c..fc063b8a 100644
--- a/man/groff.7.man
+++ b/man/groff.7.man
@@ -795,12 +795,12 @@ point\ \[eq]\ 1/72\ inch
 .
 .TPx
 .B m
-em\ \[eq]\ \f[R]the font size in points (approx.\& width of letter
-\[oq]\f[CR]m\f[R]\[cq])
+em\ \[eq]\ the font size in points (approx.\& width of letter
+\[oq]\f[CR]M\f[R]\[cq])
 .
 .TPx
 .B M
-100\^th \f[R]of an \f[CR]em
+100\^th of an \f[CR]em
 .
 .TPx
 .B n


The former hunk is something I already have revision pending for, but will add the upcasing of the quoted "m".

The latter hunk is also a good catch, but I aim to recast that item even further.  The page has a tendency to use fractions ungrammatically.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sat 15 Jan 2022 05:14:25 AM UTC, comment #1: 

I agree, it's important to clarify that an en is by definition half an em, and its relation to the size of the letter n is more rule of thumb.

In the line of doc/groff.texi changed by this patch, I would also be tempted to remove the italics on "approximately," as it's not clear what extra information that imparts.  Is an italic "approximately" somehow more approximate than a roman one?

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Sat 06 Nov 2021 01:08:26 AM UTC, original submission:  

From 945b54830eccf9323319045b8eb749a5baa46ac6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@rhi.hi.is>
Date: Sat, 6 Nov 2021 01:02:44 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] [doc] fix explanations of units "em" and "en"

1) en = em/2

2) em is about as wide as the letter 'M'

3) align a header to the data in a table (same alignment).
The header is too far from the beginning of the data in the wide table

4) Remove an unnecessary font change

Signed-off-by: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@rhi.hi.is>
---
 doc/groff.texi  | 2 +-
 doc/ms.ms       | 6 +++---
 man/groff.7.man | 6 +++---
 3 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

  Patch is in the attachment.

Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>

 

(Note: upload size limit is set to 16384 kB, after insertion of the required escape characters.)

Attach Files:
   
   
Comment:
   

Attached Files
file #52209:  0001-doc-fix-explanations-of-units-em-and-en.txt added by bjarniig (2KiB - text/plain - Project groff, fix explanations of em and en)

 

Depends on the following items: None found

Items that depend on this one: None found

 

Carbon-Copy List
  • -email is unavailable- added by gbranden (Posted a comment)
  • -email is unavailable- added by barx (Posted a comment)
  • -email is unavailable- added by bjarniig (Submitted the item)
  •  

    There are 0 votes so far. Votes easily highlight which items people would like to see resolved in priority, independently of the priority of the item set by tracker managers.

    Only logged-in users can vote.

     

    Follow 10 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2022-09-11 gbranden StatusIn Progress Fixed
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed
    2022-09-04 gbranden Summary[PATCH] [doc] fix explanations of units &quot;em&quot; and &quot;en&quot; [docs] correct explanations of units em, en, and vee
    2022-09-04 gbranden StatusNone In Progress
        Planned ReleaseNone 1.23.0
    2022-05-31 gbranden StatusIn Progress None
    2022-01-24 gbranden CategoryNone General
        StatusNone In Progress
        Assigned toNone gbranden
    2021-11-06 bjarniig Attached File- Added 0001-doc-fix-explanations-of-units-em-and-en.txt, #52209

    Back to the top

    Powered by Savane 3.13-f8d8.
    Corresponding source code