Input file is card.1

  Any program (person), that produces man pages, should check the output
for defects by using (both groff and nroff)

[gn]roff -mandoc -t -ww -b -z -K utf8  <man page>

  The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.

  For a style guide use

  mandoc -T lint

-.-

  So any 'generator' should check its products with the above mentioned
'groff', 'mandoc',  and additionally with 'nroff ...'.

  This is just a simple quality control measure.

  The 'generator' may have to be corrected to get a better man page,
the source file may, and any additional file may.

  Common defects:

  Input text line longer than 80 bytes.

  Not removing trailing spaces (in in- and output).
  The reason for these trailing spaces should be found and eliminated.

  Not beginning each input sentence on a new line.
Lines should thus be shorter.

  See man-pages(7), item 'semantic newline'.

-.-

The difference between the formatted output of the original and patched file
can be seen with:

  nroff -mandoc <file1> > <out1>
  nroff -mandoc <file2> > <out2>
  diff -u <out1> <out2>

and for groff, using

"printf '%s\n%s\n' '.kern 0' '.ss 12 0' | groff -mandoc -Z - "

instead of 'nroff -mandoc'

  Add the option '-t', if the file contains a table.

  Read the output of 'diff -u' with 'less -R' or similar.

-.-.

  If 'man' (man-db) is used to check the manual for warnings,
the following must be set:

  The option "-warnings=w"

  The environmental variable:

export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)

  or

  (produce only warnings):

export MANROFFOPT="-ww -b -z"

export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)


-.-.

Output from "mandoc -T lint  card.1 ": (shortened list)

      1 skipping paragraph macro

-.-.

Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -ww -b -z card.1 ": (shortened list)

      1 font name 'CW' is deprecated

-.-.

Output from "mandoc -T lint  card.1 ":

mandoc: card.1:10:2: WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP after SH

-.-.

Change '-' (\-) to '\(en' (en-dash) for a numeric range.
GNU gnulib has recently (2023-06-18) updated its
"build_aux/update-copyright" to recognize "\(en" in man pages.

card.1:40:Copyright \(co 1997\-99 Akim Demaille, Miguel Santana

-.-.

Change a HYPHEN-MINUS (code 0x2D) to a minus(-dash) (\-),
if it
is in front of a name for an option,
is a symbol for standard input,
is a single character used to indicate an option,
or is in the NAME section (man-pages(7)).
N.B. - (0x2D), processed as a UTF-8 file, is changed to a hyphen
(0x2010, groff \[u2010] or \[hy]) in the output.

32:\f(CW$ card -lfr a2ps -- -Pdisplay -4\fR

-.-.

Add a comma (or \&) after "e.g." and "i.e.", or use English words
(man-pages(7)).
Abbreviation points should be protected against being interpreted as
an end of sentence, if they are not, and that independent of the
current place on the line.

28:(e.g. \fB\-\-command=\fR'a2ps \fB\-\-help\fR')

-.-.

Put a parenthetical sentence, phrase on a separate line,
if not part of a code.
See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".

card.1:24:print the help in the language LL (default: English)

-.-.

Two or more space charaters between printable characters.

When the distance is between sentences,
start the beginning of the second one on a separate line
("semantic newline", see man-pages(7)).

42:This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
52:is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the

-.-.

Output from "test-groff  -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -ww -z ":

troff:<stdin>:32: warning: font name 'CW' is deprecated