bugGNU roff - Bugs: bug #61467, doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather...

 
 

bug #61467: doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather than the symbol for a unit

Submitter:  Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>
Submitted:  Thu 11 Nov 2021 09:55:08 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Preprocessor pic Severity:  2 - Minor
Item Group:  Documentation Status:  Invalid
Privacy:  Public Assigned to:  gbranden
Open/Closed:  Closed Planned Release:  None
* Mandatory Fields

Add a New Comment Rich Markup
   

Thu 30 Mar 2023 11:57:17 AM UTC, comment #3: 

No feedback despite "Need Info" status since November 2021; closing as invalid.  Also dropping "[PATCH]" annotation since I rejected the patch.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Sat 20 Nov 2021 11:11:13 AM UTC, comment #2: 


original submission:

> From a0837ba65287a48272acf6b92114cb16fe30ef7a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@rhi.hi.is>
> Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2021 21:46:23 +0000
> Subject: [PATCH] doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather than the symbol for a unit
>
>   The symbol '"' is a specific English one.


Do you have some support for this assertion?

I checked Diderot/d'Alembert's Encyclopédie and Cajori's landmark work on mathematical notations and could not decide the issue.

It's plausible to me that the use of single and double prime symbols was adapted from the division of the circle into degrees, minutes, and seconds.  But this is speculation on my part.
 

>   I do not see it for example in conversion tables.


How suggestive this depends on which ones you checked.  The metrication of much European literature can cloud the issue; to see how foot and inch were abbreviated or symbolized in non-English traditions you may have to consult pre-Napoleonic sources (hence why I turned to Encyclopédie).

The French had "pied et pouce", for example, and Spanish consumers of televisions and monitors seem to know what "pulgadas" are despite their country having been fully metric for many decades.

>   Names of units are better in text than symbols.


Sometimes.


>  .sp 2p
>  .TH
> -box@0.75" wide by 0.5" high
> -circle@0.5" diameter
> -ellipse@0.75" wide by 0.5" high
> -arc@0.5" radius
> -line@0.5" long
> -arrow@0.5" long
> +box@0.75 inches wide by 0.5 inches high
> +circle@0.5 inches diameter
> +ellipse@0.75 inches wide by 0.5 inches high
> +arc@0.5 inches radius
> +line@0.5 inches long
> +arrow@0.5 inches long


I am sure that you've found at least one problem; the use of the neutral double quote here is bad typography.  The special character \[sd] should be used instead, which the output device or one of the fonts thereof can degrade to '"' if necessary.

G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Group administrator
Tue 16 Nov 2021 09:33:24 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Changing category: While pic.ms is indeed written in the -ms macro language, the document describes the pic preprocessor, which is more in the pic purview than the ms one.  That is, this bug concerns the content of pic.ms, not the way -ms renders it.

Dave <barx>
Group Member
Thu 11 Nov 2021 09:55:08 PM UTC, original submission:  

From a0837ba65287a48272acf6b92114cb16fe30ef7a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@rhi.hi.is>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2021 21:46:23 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather than the symbol for a unit

  The symbol '"' is a specific English one.

  I do not see it for example in conversion tables.

  Names of units are better in text than symbols.

Signed-off-by: Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig@rhi.hi.is>
---
 doc/pic.ms | 12 ++++++------
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/doc/pic.ms b/doc/pic.ms
index 3fc473c13..b1b3d25fe 100644
--- a/doc/pic.ms
+++ b/doc/pic.ms
@@ -411,12 +411,12 @@ Object@Default Size
 _
 .sp 2p
 .TH
-box@0.75" wide by 0.5" high
-circle@0.5" diameter
-ellipse@0.75" wide by 0.5" high
-arc@0.5" radius
-line@0.5" long
-arrow@0.5" long
+box@0.75 inches wide by 0.5 inches high
+circle@0.5 inches diameter
+ellipse@0.75 inches wide by 0.5 inches high
+arc@0.5 inches radius
+line@0.5 inches long
+arrow@0.5 inches long
 .sp 5p
 _
 .TE
--
2.33.0


Bjarni Ingi Gislason <bjarniig>

 

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

Attach Files:
   
   
Comment:
   

No files currently attached

 

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 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 8 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2023-03-30 gbranden StatusNeed Info Invalid
        Assigned toNone gbranden
        Open/ClosedOpen Closed
        Summary[PATCH] doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather than the symbol for a unit doc/pic.ms: Use the name rather than the symbol for a unit
    2021-11-20 gbranden Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
        StatusNone Need Info
    2021-11-16 barx Carbon-CopyRemoved 93119 -
    2021-11-16 barx CategoryMacro ms Preprocessor pic

    Back to the top

    Powered by Savane 3.13-4448.
    Corresponding source code