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version 1.49, 2011/08/30 13:14:01 version 1.50, 2011/11/14 15:10:27
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 .\"     $Id$  .\"     $Id$
 .\"  .\"
 .\" Copyright (c) 2009 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>  .\" Copyright (c) 2003 Jason McIntyre <jmc@openbsd.org>
   .\" Copyright (c) 2009, 2010, 2011 Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps@bsd.lv>
   .\" Copyright (c) 2011 Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@openbsd.org>
 .\"  .\"
 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any  .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above  .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
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 .Nm mandoc_char  .Nm mandoc_char
 .Nd mandoc special characters  .Nd mandoc special characters
 .Sh DESCRIPTION  .Sh DESCRIPTION
 This page documents the special characters and predefined strings accepted by  This page documents the
   .Xr roff 7
   escape sequences accepted by
 .Xr mandoc 1  .Xr mandoc 1
 to format  to represent special characters in
 .Xr mdoc 7  .Xr mdoc 7
 and  and
 .Xr man 7  .Xr man 7
 documents.  documents.
 .Pp  .Pp
 Both  The rendering depends on the
 .Xr mdoc 7  .Xr mandoc 1
 and  output mode; in ASCII output, most characters are completely
 .Xr man 7  unintelligible.
 encode special characters with  For that reason, using any of the special characters documented here,
   except those discussed in the
   .Sx DESCRIPTION ,
   is strongly discouraged; they are supported merely for backwards
   compatibility with existing documents.
   .Pp
   In particular, in English manual pages, do not use special-character
   escape sequences to represent national language characters in author
   names; instead, provide ASCII transcriptions of the names.
   .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).
   .Pp
   Hyphens are used for adjectives;
   to separate the two parts of a compound word;
   or to separate a word across two successive lines of text.
   The hyphen does not need to be escaped:
   .Bd -unfilled -offset indent
   blue-eyed
   lorry-driver
   .Ed
   .Pp
   The mathematical minus sign is used for negative numbers or subtraction.
   It should be written as
   .Sq \e- :
   .Bd -unfilled -offset indent
   a = 3 \e- 1;
   b = \e-2;
   .Ed
   .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
   .Sq \e(en :
   .Bd -unfilled -offset indent
   pp. 95\e(en97.
   Go away \e(en or else!
   .Ed
   .Pp
   The em-dash can be used to show an interruption
   or can be used the same way as colons, semi-colons, or parentheses.
   It should be written as
   .Sq \e(em :
   .Bd -unfilled -offset indent
   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.
   Other formats, such as PostScript, render them correctly,
   with differing widths.
   .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
   characters.
   To prevent a line break between two particular words,
   use the non-breaking space escape sequence
   .Pq Sq \e~
   instead of the normal space character.
   For example, the input string
   .Dq number\e~1
   will be kept together as
   .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.
   In some cases, using either the non-breaking
   .Pq Sq \e~
   or the breaking
   .Pq Sq \e\ \&
   space escape sequence may be preferable.
   To escape macro names and to protect whitespace at the end
   of input lines, the zero-width space
   .Pq Sq \e&
   is often useful.
   For example, in
   .Xr mdoc 7 ,
   a normal space character can be displayed in single quotes in either
   of the following ways:
   .Pp
   .Dl .Sq \(dq \(dq
   .Dl .Sq \e \e&
   .Ss Quotes
   On request and macro lines, the double-quote character
   .Pq Sq \(dq
   is handled specially to allow quoting.
   One way to prevent this special handling is by using the
   .Sq \e(dq
   escape sequence.
   .Pp
   Note that on text lines, literal double-quote characters can be used
   verbatim.
   All other quote-like characters can be used verbatim as well,
   even on request and macro lines.
   .Ss Periods
   The period
   .Pq Sq \&.
   is handled specially at the beginning of an input line,
   where it introduces a
   .Xr roff 7
   request or a macro, and when appearing alone as a macro argument in
   .Xr mdoc 7 .
   In such situations, prepend a zero-width space
   .Pq Sq \e&.
   to make it behave like normal text.
   .Pp
   Do not use the
   .Sq \e.
   escape sequence.
   It does not prevent special handling of the period.
   .Ss Backslashes
   To include a literal backslash
   .Pq Sq \e
   into the output, use the
   .Pq Sq \ee
   escape sequence.
   .Pp
   Note that doubling it
   .Pq Sq \e\e
   is not the right way to output a backslash.
   Because
   .Xr mandoc 1
   does not implement full
   .Xr roff 7
   functionality, it may work with
   .Xr mandoc 1 ,
   but it may have weird effects on complete
   .Xr roff 7
   implementations.
   .Sh SPECIAL CHARACTERS
   Special characters are encoded as
 .Sq \eX  .Sq \eX
 .Pq for a one-character escape ,  .Pq for a one-character escape ,
 .Sq \e(XX  .Sq \e(XX
Line 41  encode special characters with
Line 185  encode special characters with
 and  and
 .Sq \e[N]  .Sq \e[N]
 .Pq N-character .  .Pq N-character .
 One may generalise  For details, see the
 .Sq \e(XX  .Em Special Characters
 as  subsection of the
 .Sq \e[XX]  .Xr roff 7
 and  manual.
 .Sq \eX  
 as  
 .Sq \e[X] .  
 Predefined strings are functionally similar to special characters, using  
 .Sq \e*X  
 .Pq for a one-character escape ,  
 .Sq \e*(XX  
 .Pq two-character ,  
 and  
 .Sq \e*[N]  
 .Pq N-character .  
 One may generalise  
 .Sq \e*(XX  
 as  
 .Sq \e*[XX]  
 and  
 .Sq \e*X  
 as  
 .Sq \e*[X] .  
 .Pp  .Pp
 Note that each output mode will have a different rendering of the  
 characters.  
 It's guaranteed that each input symbol will correspond to a  
 (more or less) meaningful output rendering, regardless the mode.  
 .Sh SPECIAL CHARACTERS  
 These are the preferred input symbols for producing special characters.  
 .Pp  
 Spacing:  Spacing:
 .Bl -column "Input" "Description" -offset indent -compact  .Bl -column "Input" "Description" -offset indent -compact
 .It Em Input Ta Em Description  .It Em Input Ta Em Description
Line 491  They are
Line 609  They are
 for use, as they differ across implementations.  for use, as they differ across implementations.
 Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not  Manuals using these predefined strings are almost certainly not
 portable.  portable.
   .Pp
   Their syntax is similar to special characters, using
   .Sq \e*X
   .Pq for a one-character escape ,
   .Sq \e*(XX
   .Pq two-character ,
   and
   .Sq \e*[N]
   .Pq N-character .
   For details, see the
   .Em Predefined Strings
   subsection of the
   .Xr roff 7
   manual.
 .Bl -column "Input" "Rendered" "Description" -offset indent  .Bl -column "Input" "Rendered" "Description" -offset indent
 .It Em Input Ta Em Rendered Ta Em Description  .It Em Input Ta Em Rendered Ta Em Description
 .It \e*(Ba   Ta \*(Ba       Ta vertical bar  .It \e*(Ba   Ta \*(Ba       Ta vertical bar
Line 588  from mandoc either because they are poorly documented 
Line 720  from mandoc either because they are poorly documented 
 known representation.  known representation.
 .El  .El
 .Sh SEE ALSO  .Sh SEE ALSO
 .Xr mandoc 1  .Xr mandoc 1 ,
   .Xr man 7 ,
   .Xr mdoc 7 ,
   .Xr roff 7
 .Sh AUTHORS  .Sh AUTHORS
 The  The
 .Nm  .Nm
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