composeglyphs.1: Some remarks and a patch with editorial changes for this man page

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Package: a2ps
Version: 1:4.15.6-1+b1
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

   * What led up to the situation?

     Checking for defects with a new version

test-[g|n]roff -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z < "man page"

  [Use "groff -e ' $' -e '\\~$' <file>" to find obvious trailing spaces.]

  ["test-groff" is a script in the repository for "groff"; is not shipped]
(local copy and "troff" slightly changed by me).

  [The fate of "test-nroff" was decided in groff bug #55941.]

   * What was the outcome of this action?

troff:<stdin>:56: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:57: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:64: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:68: warning: trailing space in the line

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

     No output (no warnings).

-.-

  General remarks and further material, if a diff-file exist, are in the
attachments.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: trixie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 6.12.12-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=is_IS.iso88591, LC_CTYPE=is_IS.iso88591 (charmap=ISO-8859-1), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages a2ps depends on:
ii  file       1:5.45-3+b1
ii  libc6      2.40-7
ii  libgc1     1:8.2.8-1
ii  libpaper2  2.2.5-0.3+b1
ii  psutils    3.3.8-1

Versions of packages a2ps recommends:
ii  bzip2                     1.0.8-6
pn  lpr | rlpr | cups-client  <none>
ii  wdiff                     1.2.2-7

Versions of packages a2ps suggests:
ii  emacsen-common                       3.0.5
ii  ghostscript                          10.04.0~dfsg-2+b1
ii  groff                                1.23.0-7
ii  gv                                   1:3.7.4-2+b2
pn  html2ps                              <none>
ii  imagemagick                          8:7.1.1.43+dfsg1-1
ii  imagemagick-7.q16 [imagemagick]      8:7.1.1.43+dfsg1-1
pn  t1-cyrillic                          <none>
ii  texlive-binaries [texlive-base-bin]  2024.20240313.70630+ds-5+b1

-- no debconf information

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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="chk_man.err.composeglyphs.1"

Input file is composeglyphs.1

Output from "mandoc -T lint  composeglyphs.1": (shortened list)

      7 whitespace at end of input line

Remove trailing space with: sed -e 's/  *$//'

-.-.

Output from "test-groff -mandoc -t -ww -z composeglyphs.1": (shortened list)

      4 trailing space in the line

Remove trailing space with: sed -e 's/  *$//'

-.-.

Remove space characters (whitespace) at the end of lines.
Use "git apply ... --whitespace=fix" to fix extra space issues, or use
global configuration "core.whitespace".

Number of lines affected is

7

-.-.

Wrong distance between sentences in the input file.

  Separate the sentences and subordinate clauses; each begins on a new
line.  See man-pages(7) ("Conventions for source file layout") and
"info groff" ("Input Conventions").

  The best procedure is to always start a new sentence on a new line,
at least, if you are typing on a computer.

Remember coding: Only one command ("sentence") on each (logical) line.

E-mail: Easier to quote exactly the relevant lines.

Generally: Easier to edit the sentence.

Patches: Less unaffected text.

Search for two adjacent words is easier, when they belong to the same line,
and the same phrase.

  The amount of space between sentences in the output can then be
controlled with the ".ss" request.

Mark a final abbreviation point as such by suffixing it with "\&".

Some sentences (etc.) do not begin on a new line.

Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.

  Lines with only one (or two) space(s) between sentences could be split,
so latter sentences begin on a new line.

Use

#!/usr/bin/sh

sed -e '/^\./n' \
-e 's/\([[:alpha:]]\)\.  */\1.\n/g' $1

to split lines after a sentence period.
Check result with the difference between the formatted outputs.
See also the attachment "general.bugs"

20:font for postscript.  It requires a pre-existing AFM and allows
66:is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the

-.-.

Space after an end of sentence.

composeglyphs.1:20:font for postscript.  It requires a pre-existing AFM and allows
composeglyphs.1:66:is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the

-.-.

Put a subordinate sentence (after a comma) on a new line.

composeglyphs.1:56:If you create new AFMs or modify existing ones, the author asks 
composeglyphs.1:70:programs are properly installed at your site, the command

-.-.

Remove quotes when there is a printable
but no space character between them
and the quotes are not for emphasis (markup),
for example as an argument to a macro.

composeglyphs.1:1:.TH "composeglyphs" 1 "May 2003" "a2ps" "Debian"

-.-.

Space character after a macro call.

63:.PP 

-.-.

Trailing space in a macro call.
Remove with "sed -i -e 's/  *$//'"

53:.B a2ps 
69:.B a2ps 

-.-.

Output from "test-groff  -mandoc -t -K utf8 -rF0 -rHY=0 -rCHECKSTYLE=10 -ww -z ":

troff:<stdin>:56: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:57: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:64: warning: trailing space in the line
troff:<stdin>:68: warning: trailing space in the line

-.-.

Generally:

Split (sometimes) lines after a punctuation mark; before a conjunction.

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--- composeglyphs.1	2025-03-04 13:03:30.436718429 +0000
+++ composeglyphs.1.new	2025-03-04 13:10:43.754893863 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.TH "composeglyphs" 1 "May 2003" "a2ps" "Debian"
+.TH composeglyphs 1 "May 2003" a2ps Debian
 .SH NAME
 composeglyphs \- generate an encoding vector or new font for postscript
 .SH SYNOPSIS
@@ -17,9 +17,10 @@ composeglyphs \- generate an encoding ve
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B composeglyphs
 is a script to generate either an encoding vector or a new
-font for postscript.  It requires a pre-existing AFM and allows
-for the use of composite characters that AFM does not already
-provide.
+font for postscript.
+It requires a pre-existing AFM
+and allows for the use of composite characters
+that AFM does not already provide.
 .SH OPTIONS
 .TP
 \fB\-e\fR \fIencoding.afm\fR
@@ -50,24 +51,26 @@ The name of the AFM file to generate.
 is a part of
 .BR Ogonkify ,
 which comes with the
-.B a2ps 
+.B a2ps
 distribution.
 .PP
-If you create new AFMs or modify existing ones, the author asks 
-that you kindly send him a copy so that he may include them in 
-the distribution.
+If you create new AFMs or modify existing ones,
+the author asks that you kindly send him a copy
+so that he may include them in the distribution.
 .SH AUTHOR
 Juliusz Chroboczek <[email protected]>
 .SH SEE ALSO
 \fBa2ps\fR(1), \fBogonkify\fR(1)
-.PP 
-The full documentation for 
+.PP
+The full documentation for
 .B Ogonkify
-is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the
+is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
+If the
 .B info
-and 
-.B a2ps 
-programs are properly installed at your site, the command
+and
+.B a2ps
+programs are properly installed at your site,
+the command
 .IP
 .B info Ogonkify
 .PP

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Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="general.bugs"

  Any program (person), that produces man pages, should check the output
for defects by using (both groff and nroff)

[gn]roff -mandoc -t -ww -b -z -K utf8 <man page>

  The same goes for man pages that are used as an input.

  For a style guide use

  mandoc -T lint

-.-

  Any "autogenerator" should check its products with the above mentioned
'groff', 'mandoc', and additionally with 'nroff ...'.

  It should also check its input files for too long (> 80) lines.

  This is just a simple quality control measure.

  The "autogenerator" may have to be corrected to get a better man page,
the source file may, and any additional file may.

  Common defects:

  Not removing trailing spaces (in in- and output).
  The reason for these trailing spaces should be found and eliminated.

  "git" has a "tool" to point out whitespace,
see for example "git-apply(1)" and git-config(1)")

  Not beginning each input sentence on a new line.
Line length and patch size should thus be reduced.

  The script "reportbug" uses 'quoted-printable' encoding when a line is
longer than 1024 characters in an 'ascii' file.

  See man-pages(7), item "semantic newline".

-.-

The difference between the formatted output of the original and patched file
can be seen with:

  nroff -mandoc <file1> > <out1>
  nroff -mandoc <file2> > <out2>
  diff -d -u <out1> <out2>

and for groff, using

\"printf '%s\n%s\n' '.kern 0' '.ss 12 0' | groff -mandoc -Z - \"

instead of 'nroff -mandoc'

  Add the option '-t', if the file contains a table.

  Read the output from 'diff -d -u ...' with 'less -R' or similar.

-.-.

  If 'man' (man-db) is used to check the manual for warnings,
the following must be set:

  The option \"-warnings=w\"

  The environmental variable:

export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)

  or

  (produce only warnings):

export MANROFFOPT=\"-ww -b -z\"

export MAN_KEEP_STDERR=yes (or any non-empty value)

-.-

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