Re: [PATCH 03/19] man/curs_{bkgd,bkgrnd,color}: Migrate terminology.

[G. Branden Robinson]

At 2024-09-21T14:22:05-0400, Thomas Dickey wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 21, 2024 at 11:44:59AM -0500, G. Branden Robinson wrote:
> > ...from "background character" to "blank character".  We don't need
> > two names for the same concept.
[...]
> Perhaps I'm misreading this, but X/Open curses only refers to
> "the background character" (jargon true, but used repeatedly).

No, I think you're right.  But there are multiple ways in which the
terminology in the ncurses man pages doesn't precisely mirror the X/Open
Curses standard.  Given the pages' murky provenance,[1] I've felt that
exhibiting some independence in expression was likely a virtue.

As a rule, when I've submitted patches that "migrate" or "reform"
terminology, I've followed three principles, in decreasing order of
importance.

1.  internal consistency
2.  intelligibility
3.  fidelity to X/Open Curses terminology

To me, "blank character" is better than "background character" because I
think it's harder to infer that some kind of character combination
process occurs with the former.  A blank character appears only where no
other character is present.  To my mind, we generally think of
foregrounds and backgrounds as combining in some manner, whereas blank
spaces get overwritten, filled, or occupied.

But I can submit patches to migrate things back the other way, with
principle #1 foremost, if you feel it'd be an improvement.

Regards,
Branden

[1] https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses-license.html#ncurses_1_8_5

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature