Re: [bug #57667] refer(1) rehab

[Oliver Corff]

Dear All,

Branden, thank you for alerting me --- without the message to the mailing list the Savannah would have escaped my attention (I am still not *really* familiar with it).

The rephrased beginning to the refer man page communicates the key concept in a much more straightforward way than the old version --- thank you!

Citing the first topic-specific sentence of the old (1.22.4) refer manpage,

refer copies the contents of filename... to the standard output

this is *not* the primary purpose why one would use refer, though technically true.

cat(1) also copies the contents to the standard output;-), but in contrast to refer, this *is* its primary purpose.

That minor issue being solved makes reading the rest much easier.

Thank you, best regards,

Oliver.

PS: Just a comment from the linguist's point of view: What is grammatically correct, is not necessary logically correct.

The old version of the introduction reads a bit like the following made-up examples:

steering_wheel(1)

steering_wheel keeps the direction of the vehicle straight. Non-zero degree angular turns of steering_wheel translate into directional changes of the motion vector the amount of which depends on additional factors.

vs.

steering_wheel is used to control the direction of the moving vehicle. Any angular turn translates into a directional change of the moving vehicle.

Or:

car(1)

1. It is forbidden to drive cars.

2. Under exceptions speciified by laws and relevant regulations, individuals may obtain exceptional, non-transferrable and limited permission to drive cars, called "driver's licence", granted in a strict case-by-case process upon meeting all requirements specified by aforementioned laws and regulations. The permission may be revoked at any time on legal grounds.

3. Main controls of car(1) are: steering_wheel(1), accelerator(1), brake(1), gearshift(1), etc.

On 12/08/2023 08:43, G. Branden Robinson wrote:

> Update of bug #57667 (project groff):
>
>                   Status:                    None => Need Info
>
>     _______________________________________________________
>
> Follow-up Comment #6:
>
> Oliver, can you respond to Dave's comment #5?
>
> Is the _refer_(1) man page rehabilitated to a point of utility for you?
>
> I'll add that I'm glad Piotr Piatrou found _groff_mm_(7) adequate as it
> existed four years ago; I found that I myself did not, so I whacked on it
> pretty good for groff 1.23.0.
>
>
> $ COLUMNS=72 git di --stat 1.22.4 1.23.0 contrib/mm/groff_mm.7.man
>  contrib/mm/groff_mm.7.man | 6049 +++++++++++++++++++++++--------------
>  1 file changed, 3741 insertions(+), 2308 deletions(-)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>     _______________________________________________________
>
> Reply to this item at:
>
>   <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?57667>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Message sent via Savannah
> https://savannah.gnu.org/
>
>

--

Dr. Oliver Corff
Mail: oliver.corff@email.de