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

Input file is optex.1

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

      3 STYLE: whitespace at end of input line
      1 WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: PP empty
      1 WARNING: skipping paragraph macro: br at the end of SH

-.-.

Output from
test-groff mandoc -Kutf8 -ww -z optex.1: (shortened list)

      1 end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
      1 trailing whitespace [-w trail]

-.-.

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".

See more information in the attachment "trailing whitespace".

Number of lines affected is

3

-.-.

Wrong distance (not two spaces, not a new line character (\n)) 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"

31:csplain package. For more information about it see

-.-.

Only one space character is after a possible end of sentence
(after a punctuation, that can end a sentence).
Start a new sentence on a new line.


optex.1:1:.TH OPTEX 1 "17 Feb. 2020" "Petr Olsak"

-.-.

Remove a space character after a macro call.

28:.B OpTeX 
40:.B OpTeX 

-.-.

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

troff:<stdin>:23: warning: end of sentence detected before end of text line [-w style]
troff:<stdin>:39: warning: trailing whitespace [-w trail]

-.-

Generally:

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

-.-

Tables:

  Use the preprocessor 'tbl' to make tables.

  Put data, that are wider than the header in the (centered) last column,
in a "T{...\nT}" block(, when the table gets wider than the output line).

  Table headings, that are wider than any data in the corresponding
column, do not need to be centered, so left adjustment (l, L) is
sufficient.  There is thereby no change in the standard output.

--- optex.1	2026-08-04 20:15:33.445036929 +0000
+++ optex.1.new	2026-08-04 20:33:26.305925512 +0000
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.TH OPTEX 1 "17 Feb. 2020" "Petr Olsak"
+.TH OPTEX 1 "17 Feb.\& 2020" "Petr Olsak"
 .\"=====================================================================
 .if t .ds TX \fRT\\h'-0.1667m'\\v'0.20v'E\\v'-0.20v'\\h'-0.125m'X\fP
 .if n .ds TX TeX
@@ -20,12 +20,13 @@ optex \- OPmac and Plain TeX for LuaHBTe
 .\"=====================================================================
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 This manual page was derived from the manual page for \*(LX and is not meant
-to be exhaustive.  The complete
+to be exhaustive.
+The complete
 documentation for this version of \*(TX can be found in the info file
 or manual
 .IR "Web2C: A TeX implementation" .
 .PP
-.B OpTeX 
+.B OpTeX
 is LuaTeX macro package initialized as the LuaHBTeX format optex.fmt.
 It is based on Plain TeX macros by Donald Knuth and on OPmac macros from
 csplain package. For more information about it see
@@ -34,9 +35,8 @@ http://petr.olsak.net/optex web page.
 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 .BR luatex (1),
 .BR tex (1),
-.br
+.
 .SH AUTHORS
-The author of 
-.B OpTeX 
+The author of
+.B OpTeX
 is Petr Olsak.
-.PP

  Check the output from "lintian" in the Debian distribution.

  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>

  To find most trailing spaces use

grep -n -e ' $' -e ' \\f.$' -e ' \\"' -e ' "$' <man page>

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

-.-

  For a style guide use

  mandoc -T lint

-.-

  For general input conventions consult the man page "nroff(7)" (item
"Input conventions") or the Texinfo manual about the same item.

-.-

  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 when that has been fixed.

  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)

-.-