From: Thomas Rast <trast@student.ethz.ch>
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:02:55 GMT
Subject: Re: quote in help code example
Message-ID: <200910151402.56295.trast@student.ethz.ch>
In-Reply-To: <200910132215.46840.trast@student.ethz.ch>

Thomas Rast wrote:
> 
> The patch below just replaces said template with a no-op for git's
> manpage creation.  I have not been able to substantiate the claim that
> apostrophes are special, and in fact with the patch my manpages look
> fine.  Then again I don't know anything about roff syntax either, and
> manuals seem a bit hard to come by.

Actually, scratch the patch.  I haven't been able to nail it yet, and
I'm not sure I have the energy for another stab at this mess; but
during testing with older versions, I learned that they behave
differently and the patch just shifts the breakage a bit.

Also, the single quotes are apparently special at the beginning of a
line and to delimit function arguments, though not elsewhere.  The
bash manpage uses \(aq to get a literal apostrophe, which I will aim
to convert them to.  Oddly enough, the groff(7) manpage does not
document \(aq, but lists \(cq as the official escape for ' ... which
then turns out to mutate into this cursed non-apostrophe again.  Sigh.

-- 
Thomas Rast
trast@{inf,student}.ethz.ch