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[bug #62593] clarify description of end-of-sentence detection


From: Dave
Subject: [bug #62593] clarify description of end-of-sentence detection
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2022 03:35:39 -0400 (EDT)

Follow-up Comment #6, bug #62593 (project groff):

[comment #5 comment #5:]
> It's difficult to make either of the suggested changes at this
> location in the manual.  This is §5.1.2.  I introduce an escape
> sequence later in the same section for the sake of `\&`, but not
> formally until §5.6.2.  I notice that I do not formally define
> "ordinary character" or "input line".  Those should probably be
> done.

Perhaps for completeness, but I think those two terms are intuitive enough to
be used before a formal definition.  (And cross references can always point
forward, in case anyone is confused about the terms.)  The text can say
"ordinary space characters" without needing to bring in the concept of escapes
yet; the reader who goes through the manual linearly (and such readers are
probably rare anyway) may wonder "what's a NONordinary space?," but this won't
trip up their understanding of the point being made here.  And the reader
who's looking up this section for reference will understand immediately that
there are other types of spaces.

> page space (in DVI and PDF) is at a premium in this part of
> the manual.

Happily, the supply-chain issues limiting the supply of so many other things
have not hit PDF pages yet.  And I bet the set of people who will print out
the PDF manual is quite small.

> A CSTR#54-ish definition of sentence-ending detection that has
> free recourse to the panoply of *roff jargon is better
> situated in groff(7).

Yes, but as long as the Texinfo manual advertises itself as the most complete
reference, the detail does need to be there as well.

In any case, I'm not sure how important the first change is; I think most
readers will assume the unmodified word "spaces" means the spaces you get when
you hit the keyboard's spacebar.

The second change ("end of an input line") does seem a useful clarification.


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