mandoc/mandoc_char.7 - diff

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Up to [cvsweb.bsd.lv] / mandoc

Diff for /mandoc/mandoc_char.7 between version 1.51 and 1.69

version 1.51, 2011/11/23 10:09:30

version 1.69, 2018/08/08 13:54:05

Line 2

.\"

.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any

.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above

Line 35 documents.

.Pp

The rendering depends on the

.Xr mandoc 1

output mode; in ASCII output, most characters are completely

output mode; it can be inspected by calling

unintelligible.

.Xr man 1

For that reason, using any of the special characters documented here,

on the

except those discussed in the

.Nm

manual page with different

.Fl T

arguments.

In ASCII output, the rendering of some characters may be hard

to interpret for the reader.

Many are rendered as descriptive strings like

.Qq <integral> ,

.Qq <degree> ,

.Qq <Gamma> ,

which may look ugly, and many are replaced by similar ASCII characters.

In particular, accented characters are usually shown without the accent.

For that reason, try to avoid using any of the special characters

documented here except those discussed in the

.Sx DESCRIPTION ,

is strongly discouraged; they are supported merely for backwards

unless they are essential for explaining the subject matter at hand,

compatibility with existing documents.

for example when documenting complicated mathematical functions.

.Pp

In particular, in English manual pages, do not use special-character

escape sequences to represent national language characters in author

Line 49 names; instead, provide ASCII transcriptions of the na

Line 63 names; instead, provide ASCII transcriptions of the na

.Ss Dashes and Hyphens

In typography there are different types of dashes of various width:

the hyphen (-),

the minus sign (\-),

the en-dash (\(en),

and the em-dash (\(em).

the em-dash (\(em),

and the mathematical minus sign (\(mi).

.Pp

Hyphens are used for adjectives;

to separate the two parts of a compound word;

Line 62 blue-eyed

Line 76 blue-eyed

lorry-driver

.Ed

.Pp

The mathematical minus sign is used for negative numbers or subtraction.

If a word on a text input line contains a hyphen, a formatter may decide

It should be written as

to insert an output line break after the hyphen if that helps filling

.Sq \e- :

the current output line, but the whole word would overflow the line.

.Bd -unfilled -offset indent

If it is important that the word is not broken across lines in this

a = 3 \e- 1;

way, a zero-width space

b = \e-2;

.Pq Sq \e&

.Ed

can be inserted before or after the hyphen.

While

.Xr mandoc 1

never breaks the output line after hyphens adjacent to a zero-width

space, after any of the other dash- or hyphen-like characters

represented by escape sequences, or after hyphens inside words in

macro arguments, other software may not respect these rules and may

break the line even in such cases.

.Pp

Some

.Xr roff 7

implementations contains dictionaries allowing to break the line

at syllable boundaries even inside words that contain no hyphens.

Such automatic hyphenation is not supported by

.Xr mandoc 1 ,

which only breaks the line at whitespace, and inside words only

after existing hyphens.

.Pp

The en-dash is used to separate the two elements of a range,

or can be used the same way as an em-dash.

It should be written as

Line 88 Three things \e(em apples, oranges, and bananas.

Line 118 Three things \e(em apples, oranges, and bananas.

This is not that \e(em rather, this is that.

.Ed

.Pp

Note:

hyphens, minus signs, and en-dashes look identical under normal ASCII output.

.Xr roff 7

Other formats, such as PostScript, render them correctly,

documents, the minus sign is normally written as

with differing widths.

.Sq \e- .

In manual pages, some style guides recommend to also use

.Sq \e-

if an ASCII 0x2d

.Dq hyphen-minus

output glyph that can be copied and pasted is desired in output modes

supporting it, for example in

.Fl T Cm utf8

and

.Fl T Cm html .

But currently, no practically relevant manual page formatter actually

requires that subtlety, so in manual pages just write plain

.Sq -

to represent hyphen, minus, and hyphen-minus.

.Ss Spaces

To separate words in normal text, for indenting and alignment

in literal context, and when none of the following special cases apply,

just use the normal space character

.Pq Sq \ .

.Pp

When filling text, lines may be broken between words, i.e. at space

When filling text, output lines may be broken between words, i.e. at space

characters.

To prevent a line break between two particular words,

use the non-breaking space escape sequence

use the unpaddable non-breaking space escape sequence

.Pq Sq \e~

.Pq Sq \e\ \&

instead of the normal space character.

For example, the input string

.Dq number\e~1

.Dq number\e\ 1

will be kept together as

.Dq number\~1

.Dq number\ 1

on the same output line.

.Pp

On request and macro lines, the normal space character serves as an

argument delimiter.

To include whitespace into arguments, quoting is usually the best choice.

To include whitespace into arguments, quoting is usually the best choice;

In some cases, using either the non-breaking

see the MACRO SYNTAX section in

.Pq Sq \e~

.Xr roff 7 .

or the breaking

In some cases, using the non-breaking space escape sequence

.Pq Sq \e\ \&

space escape sequence may be preferable.

may be preferable.

.Pp

To escape macro names and to protect whitespace at the end

of input lines, the zero-width space

.Pq Sq \e&

Line 141 Note that on text lines, literal double-quote characte

Line 185 Note that on text lines, literal double-quote characte

verbatim.

All other quote-like characters can be used verbatim as well,

even on request and macro lines.

.Ss Accents

In output modes supporting such special output characters, for example

.Fl T Cm pdf ,

and sometimes less consistently in

.Fl T Cm utf8 ,

some

.Xr roff 7

formatters convert the following ASCII input characters to the

following Unicode special output characters:

.Bl -column x(ga U+2018 -offset indent

.It \(ga Ta U+2018 Ta left single quotation mark

.It \(aq Ta U+2019 Ta right single quotation mark

.It \(ti Ta U+02DC Ta small tilde

.It \(ha Ta U+02C6 Ta modifier letter circumflex

.El

.Pp

In prose, this automatic substitution is often desirable;

but when these characters have to be displayed as plain ASCII

characters, for example in source code samples, they require

escaping to render as follows:

.Bl -column x(ga U+2018 -offset indent

.It \e(ga Ta U+0060 Ta grave accent

.It \e(aq Ta U+0027 Ta apostrophe

.It \e(ti Ta U+007E Ta tilde

.It \e(ha Ta U+005E Ta circumflex accent

.El

.Ss Periods

The period

.Pq Sq \&.

Line 194 manual.

Line 264 manual.

Spacing:

.Bl -column "Input" "Description" -offset indent -compact

.It Em Input Ta Em Description

.It \e~ Ta non-breaking, non-collapsing space

.It Sq \e\ \& Ta unpaddable non-breaking space

.It \e Ta breaking, non-collapsing n-width space

.It \e\(ti Ta paddable non-breaking space

.It \e^ Ta zero-width space

.It \e0 Ta unpaddable, breaking digit-width space

.It \e% Ta zero-width space

.It \e| Ta one-sixth \e(em narrow space, zero width in nroff mode

.It \e^ Ta one-twelfth \e(em half-narrow space, zero width in nroff

.It \e& Ta zero-width space

.It \e| Ta zero-width space

.It \e% Ta zero-width space allowing hyphenation

.It \e0 Ta breaking, non-collapsing digit-width space

.It \ec Ta removes any trailing space (if applicable)

.El

.Pp

Lines:

Line 210 Lines:

Line 279 Lines:

.It \e(ba Ta \(ba Ta bar

.It \e(br Ta \(br Ta box rule

.It \e(ul Ta \(ul Ta underscore

.It \e(rl Ta \(rl Ta overline

.It \e(ru Ta \(ru Ta underscore (width 0.5m)

.It \e(rn Ta \(rn Ta overline

.It \e(bb Ta \(bb Ta broken bar

.It \e(sl Ta \(sl Ta forward slash

.It \e(rs Ta \(rs Ta backward slash

Line 233 Text markers:

Line 303 Text markers:

.It \e(sh Ta \(sh Ta hash (pound)

.It \e(CR Ta \(CR Ta carriage return

.It \e(OK Ta \(OK Ta check mark

.It \e(CL Ta \(CL Ta club suit

.It \e(SP Ta \(SP Ta spade suit

.It \e(HE Ta \(HE Ta heart suit

.It \e(DI Ta \(DI Ta diamond suit

.El

.Pp

Legal symbols:

Line 273 Quotes:

Line 347 Quotes:

.El

.Pp

Brackets:

.Bl -column "xxbracketrightbpx" Rendered Description -offset indent -compact

.Bl -column "xxbracketrightbtx" Rendered Description -offset indent -compact

.It Em Input Ta Em Rendered Ta Em Description

.It \e(lB Ta \(lB Ta left bracket

.It \e(rB Ta \(rB Ta right bracket

Line 284 Brackets:

Line 358 Brackets:

.It \e(bv Ta \(bv Ta brace extension

.It \e[braceex] Ta \[braceex] Ta brace extension

.It \e[bracketlefttp] Ta \[bracketlefttp] Ta top-left hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketleftbp] Ta \[bracketleftbp] Ta bottom-left hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketleftbt] Ta \[bracketleftbt] Ta bottom-left hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketleftex] Ta \[bracketleftex] Ta left hooked bracket extension

.It \e[bracketrighttp] Ta \[bracketrighttp] Ta top-right hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketrightbp] Ta \[bracketrightbp] Ta bottom-right hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketrightbt] Ta \[bracketrightbt] Ta bottom-right hooked bracket

.It \e[bracketrightex] Ta \[bracketrightex] Ta right hooked bracket extension

.It \e(lt Ta \(lt Ta top-left hooked brace

.It \e[bracelefttp] Ta \[bracelefttp] Ta top-left hooked brace

.It \e(lk Ta \(lk Ta mid-left hooked brace

.It \e[braceleftmid] Ta \[braceleftmid] Ta mid-left hooked brace

.It \e(lb Ta \(lb Ta bottom-left hooked brace

.It \e[braceleftbp] Ta \[braceleftbp] Ta bottom-left hooked brace

.It \e[braceleftbt] Ta \[braceleftbt] Ta bottom-left hooked brace

.It \e[braceleftex] Ta \[braceleftex] Ta left hooked brace extension

.It \e(rt Ta \(rt Ta top-left hooked brace

.It \e[bracerighttp] Ta \[bracerighttp] Ta top-right hooked brace

.It \e(rk Ta \(rk Ta mid-right hooked brace

.It \e[bracerightmid] Ta \[bracerightmid] Ta mid-right hooked brace

.It \e(rb Ta \(rb Ta bottom-right hooked brace

.It \e[bracerightbp] Ta \[bracerightbp] Ta bottom-right hooked brace

.It \e[bracerightbt] Ta \[bracerightbt] Ta bottom-right hooked brace

.It \e[bracerightex] Ta \[bracerightex] Ta right hooked brace extension

.It \e[parenlefttp] Ta \[parenlefttp] Ta top-left hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenleftbp] Ta \[parenleftbp] Ta bottom-left hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenleftbt] Ta \[parenleftbt] Ta bottom-left hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenleftex] Ta \[parenleftex] Ta left hooked parenthesis extension

.It \e[parenrighttp] Ta \[parenrighttp] Ta top-right hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenrightbp] Ta \[parenrightbp] Ta bottom-right hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenrightbt] Ta \[parenrightbt] Ta bottom-right hooked parenthesis

.It \e[parenrightex] Ta \[parenrightex] Ta right hooked parenthesis extension

.El

.Pp

Line 326 Arrows:

Line 400 Arrows:

.It \e(uA Ta \(uA Ta up double-arrow

.It \e(dA Ta \(dA Ta down double-arrow

.It \e(vA Ta \(vA Ta up-down double-arrow

.It \e(an Ta \(an Ta horizontal arrow extension

.El

.Pp

Logical:

Line 352 Mathematical:

Line 427 Mathematical:

.It \e(-+ Ta \(-+ Ta minus-plus

.It \e(+- Ta \(+- Ta plus-minus

.It \e[t+-] Ta \[t+-] Ta plus-minus (text)

.It \e(pc Ta \(pc Ta centre-dot

.It \e(pc Ta \(pc Ta center-dot

.It \e(mu Ta \(mu Ta multiply

.It \e[tmu] Ta \[tmu] Ta multiply (text)

.It \e(c* Ta \(c* Ta circle-multiply

Line 369 Mathematical:

Line 444 Mathematical:

.It \e(!= Ta \(!= Ta not equal

.It \e(== Ta \(== Ta equivalent

.It \e(ne Ta \(ne Ta not equivalent

.It \e(=~ Ta \(=~ Ta congruent

.It \e(ap Ta \(ap Ta tilde operator

.It \e(-~ Ta \(-~ Ta asymptotically congruent

.It \e(|= Ta \(|= Ta asymptotically equal

.It \e(ap Ta \(ap Ta asymptotically similar

.It \e(=\(ti Ta \(=~ Ta approximately equal

.It \e(~~ Ta \(~~ Ta approximately similar

.It \e(\(ti\(ti Ta \(~~ Ta almost equal

.It \e(~= Ta \(~= Ta approximately equal

.It \e(\(ti= Ta \(~= Ta almost equal

.It \e(pt Ta \(pt Ta proportionate

.It \e(es Ta \(es Ta empty set

.It \e(mo Ta \(mo Ta element

Line 404 Mathematical:

Line 479 Mathematical:

.It \e(Ah Ta \(Ah Ta aleph

.It \e(Im Ta \(Im Ta imaginary

.It \e(Re Ta \(Re Ta real

.It \e(wp Ta \(wp Ta Weierstrass p

.It \e(pd Ta \(pd Ta partial differential

.It \e(-h Ta \(-h Ta Planck constant over 2\(*p

.It \e[12] Ta \[12] Ta one-half

.It \e[hbar] Ta \[hbar] Ta Planck constant over 2\(*p

.It \e[14] Ta \[14] Ta one-fourth

.It \e(12 Ta \(12 Ta one-half

.It \e[34] Ta \[34] Ta three-fourths

.It \e(14 Ta \(14 Ta one-fourth

.It \e(34 Ta \(34 Ta three-fourths

.It \e(18 Ta \(18 Ta one-eighth

.It \e(38 Ta \(38 Ta three-eighths

.It \e(58 Ta \(58 Ta five-eighths

.It \e(78 Ta \(78 Ta seven-eighths

.It \e(S1 Ta \(S1 Ta superscript 1

.It \e(S2 Ta \(S2 Ta superscript 2

.It \e(S3 Ta \(S3 Ta superscript 3

.El

.Pp

Ligatures:

Line 436 Accents:

Line 520 Accents:

.It \e(a. Ta \(a. Ta dotted

.It \e(a^ Ta \(a^ Ta circumflex

.It \e(aa Ta \(aa Ta acute

.It \e' Ta \' Ta acute

.It \e\(aq Ta \' Ta acute

.It \e(ga Ta \(ga Ta grave

.It \e` Ta \` Ta grave

.It \e\(ga Ta \` Ta grave

.It \e(ab Ta \(ab Ta breve

.It \e(ac Ta \(ac Ta cedilla

.It \e(ad Ta \(ad Ta dieresis

.It \e(ah Ta \(ah Ta caron

.It \e(ao Ta \(ao Ta ring

.It \e(a~ Ta \(a~ Ta tilde

.It \e(a\(ti Ta \(a~ Ta tilde

.It \e(ho Ta \(ho Ta ogonek

.It \e(ha Ta \(ha Ta hat (text)

.It \e(ti Ta \(ti Ta tilde (text)

Line 453 Accents:

Line 537 Accents:

Accented letters:

.Bl -column "Input" "Rendered" "Description" -offset indent -compact

.It Em Input Ta Em Rendered Ta Em Description

.It \e('A Ta \('A Ta acute A

.It \e(\(aqA Ta \('A Ta acute A

.It \e('E Ta \('E Ta acute E

.It \e(\(aqE Ta \('E Ta acute E

.It \e('I Ta \('I Ta acute I

.It \e(\(aqI Ta \('I Ta acute I

.It \e('O Ta \('O Ta acute O

.It \e(\(aqO Ta \('O Ta acute O

.It \e('U Ta \('U Ta acute U

.It \e(\(aqU Ta \('U Ta acute U

.It \e('a Ta \('a Ta acute a

.It \e(\(aqa Ta \('a Ta acute a

.It \e('e Ta \('e Ta acute e

.It \e(\(aqe Ta \('e Ta acute e

.It \e('i Ta \('i Ta acute i

.It \e(\(aqi Ta \('i Ta acute i

.It \e('o Ta \('o Ta acute o

.It \e(\(aqo Ta \('o Ta acute o

.It \e('u Ta \('u Ta acute u

.It \e(\(aqu Ta \('u Ta acute u

.It \e(`A Ta \(`A Ta grave A

.It \e(\(gaA Ta \(`A Ta grave A

.It \e(`E Ta \(`E Ta grave E

.It \e(\(gaE Ta \(`E Ta grave E

.It \e(`I Ta \(`I Ta grave I

.It \e(\(gaI Ta \(`I Ta grave I

.It \e(`O Ta \(`O Ta grave O

.It \e(\(gaO Ta \(`O Ta grave O

.It \e(`U Ta \(`U Ta grave U

.It \e(\(gaU Ta \(`U Ta grave U

.It \e(`a Ta \(`a Ta grave a

.It \e(\(gaa Ta \(`a Ta grave a

.It \e(`e Ta \(`e Ta grave e

.It \e(\(gae Ta \(`e Ta grave e

.It \e(`i Ta \(`i Ta grave i

.It \e(\(gai Ta \(`i Ta grave i

.It \e(`o Ta \(`i Ta grave o

.It \e(\(gao Ta \(`i Ta grave o

.It \e(`u Ta \(`u Ta grave u

.It \e(\(gau Ta \(`u Ta grave u

.It \e(~A Ta \(~A Ta tilde A

.It \e(\(tiA Ta \(~A Ta tilde A

.It \e(~N Ta \(~N Ta tilde N

.It \e(\(tiN Ta \(~N Ta tilde N

.It \e(~O Ta \(~O Ta tilde O

.It \e(\(tiO Ta \(~O Ta tilde O

.It \e(~a Ta \(~a Ta tilde a

.It \e(\(tia Ta \(~a Ta tilde a

.It \e(~n Ta \(~n Ta tilde n

.It \e(\(tin Ta \(~n Ta tilde n

.It \e(~o Ta \(~o Ta tilde o

.It \e(\(tio Ta \(~o Ta tilde o

.It \e(:A Ta \(:A Ta dieresis A

.It \e(:E Ta \(:E Ta dieresis E

.It \e(:I Ta \(:I Ta dieresis I

Line 542 Units:

Line 626 Units:

.It \e(fm Ta \(fm Ta minute

.It \e(sd Ta \(sd Ta second

.It \e(mc Ta \(mc Ta micro

.It \e(Of Ta \(Of Ta Spanish female ordinal

.It \e(Om Ta \(Om Ta Spanish masculine ordinal

.El

.Pp

Greek letters:

Line 655 manual.

Line 741 manual.

.It \e*(Ai Ta \*(Ai Ta ANSI standard name

.El

.Sh UNICODE CHARACTERS

The escape sequence

The escape sequences

.Pp

.Dl \e[uXXXX]

.Dl \e[uXXXX] and \eC\(aquXXXX\(aq

.Pp

is interpreted as a Unicode codepoint.

are interpreted as Unicode codepoints.

The codepoint must be in the range above U+0080 and less than U+10FFFF.

For compatibility, points must be zero-padded to four characters; if

For compatibility, the hexadecimal digits

.Sq A

.Sq F

must be given as uppercase characters,

and points must be zero-padded to four characters; if

greater than four characters, no zero padding is allowed.

Unicode surrogates are not allowed.

.\" .Pp

.\" Unicode glyphs attenuate to the

.\" .Sq \&?

.\" character if invalid or not rendered by current output media.

.Sh NUMBERED CHARACTERS

For backward compatibility with existing manuals,

.Xr mandoc 1

Line 680 escape sequence, inserting the character

Line 767 escape sequence, inserting the character

from the current character set into the output.

Of course, this is inherently non-portable and is already marked

as deprecated in the Heirloom roff manual.

For example, do not use \eN'34', use \e(dq, or even the plain

For example, do not use \eN\(aq34\(aq, use \e(dq, or even the plain

.Sq \(dq

character where possible.

.Sh COMPATIBILITY

This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other other

This section documents compatibility between mandoc and other

troff implementations, at this time limited to GNU troff

.Pq Qq groff .

.Pp

Line 697 In

Line 784 In

.Fl T Ns Cm ascii ,

the

\e(ss, \e(nm, \e(nb, \e(nc, \e(ib, \e(ip, \e(pp, \e[sum], \e[product],

\e[coproduct], \e(gr, \e(\-h, and \e(a. special characters render

\e[coproduct], \e(gr, \e(-h, and \e(a. special characters render

differently between mandoc and groff.

.It

.Fl T Ns Cm html

.Fl T Ns Cm html ,

and

the \e(\(ti=, \e(nb, and \e(nc special characters render differently

.Fl T Ns Cm xhtml ,

the \e(~=, \e(nb, and \e(nc special characters render differently

between mandoc and groff.

.It

The

Line 728 known representation.

Line 813 known representation.

The

.Nm

manual page was written by

.An Kristaps Dzonsons ,

.An Kristaps Dzonsons Aq Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .

.Mt kristaps@bsd.lv .

.Sh CAVEATS

The

The predefined string

.Sq \e*(Ba

escape mimics the behaviour of the

mimics the behaviour of the

.Sq \&|

character in

.Xr mdoc 7 ;

CVSweb