Re: [PATCH v2 1/2] doc: add an option to have Asciidoctor build man pages directly

From: brian m. carlson <sandals@crustytoothpaste.net>
Date: May 14, 2021, 20:17 UTC
Message-ID: <YJ7avgek24eu+HHM@camp.crustytoothpaste.net>
In-Reply-To: <609ed529e2306_431272087@natae.notmuch>

On 2021-05-14 at 19:53:13, Felipe Contreras wrote:

Show 18 quoted lines

> brian m. carlson wrote:
> > Asciidoctor contains a converter to generate man pages.  In some
> > environments, where building only the manual pages and not the other
> > documentation is desired, installing a toolchain for building
> > DocBook-based manual pages may be burdensome, and using Asciidoctor
> > directly may be easier, so let's add an option to build manual pages
> > using Asciidoctor without the DocBook toolchain.
> > 
> > We generally require Asciidoctor 1.5, but versions before 1.5.3 didn't
> > contain proper handling of the apostrophe, which is controlled normally
> > by the GNU_ROFF option.  This option for the DocBook toolchain, as well
> > as newer versions of Asciidoctor, makes groff output an ASCII apostrophe
> > instead of a Unicode apostrophe in text, so as to make copy and pasting
> > commands easier.  These newer versions of Asciidoctor (1.5.3 and above)
> > detect groff and do the right thing in all cases, so the GNU_ROFF option
> > is obsolete in this case.
> 
> I don't see what that paragraph has to do with the patch below.

It's relevant because it explains why it's acceptable to discount that feature that we're not supporting as part of the patch.

Show 5 quoted lines

> > We also need to update the code that tells Asciidoctor how to format our
> > linkgit macros so that it can output proper code for man pages.
> 
> Yes, but why shove it in this patch? Now this is is doing *two*
> logically-independent changes.

This is one logical change: implementing Asciidoctor native support for man pages.

Show 7 quoted lines

> > Be careful to reset the font to the previous after the change.
> 
> This is a third change, since the current man pages already don't do
> this:
> 
>   % zcat /usr/share/man/man1/git-add.1.gz | grep '\fB'
>   you must use the \fBadd\fR command

As explained downthread, we don't know in the manual pages what font styling we're in. troff has font-change commands, not nesting begin-end pairs, for italics and bold. If the linkgit macro appears in the middle of a passage in italics, by not using \fP, we'll force the rest of the text which is to be italicized into roman.

The toolchain, whether Asciidoctor or the XSLT stylesheets, _does_ have this context and therefore can explicitly move between bold and roman, but our extensions do not.

Show 5 quoted lines

> > We insert \e before each font-change backslash so Asciidoctor doesn't
> > convert them into \*(rs, the reverse solidus character, and instead
> > leaves them as we wanted them.
> 
> Right. So my patch was correct: it is neecessary.

Yes, I agree that it's necessary. As I stated downthread, it appears my branch was in a broken state.

Show 6 quoted lines

> > Additionally, we don't want to use XML-style escapes for the litdd and
> > plus macros, so let's only use the XML-style escapes in HTML and XML and
> > use something different for our man pages.
> 
> That's a fourth change now, and one that complicates the Makefile even
> more, when I've been trying to simplify it.

I'm sorry that this complicates work you'd like to do, but unfortunately, the other option is broken rendering.

> > If users are using a more modern toolchain or don't care
> > about the rendering issues, they can enable the option.
> 
> What rendering issues?

They were mentioned upthread.

Show 8 quoted lines

> Also, the many should not suffer because of the few.
> 
> If a few people doing USE_ASCIIDOCTOR=YesPlease have issues (because of
> ancient packages in their distribution, and their reluctance to type
> `gem install`), then *they* can disable USE_ASCIIDOCTOR_MANPAGE (or just
> disable USE_ASCIIDOCTOR altogether). Most people doing
> USE_ASCIIDOCTOR=YesPlease should not suffer because of a
> minority.

I don't believe we're going to agree on this. I believe we should choose defaults that work with the most popular Linux distributions, and you don't. I think your approach is unnecessarily hostile to ordinary users and developers and understates the value that people derive from distributions.

> > Signed-off-by: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
> 
> I most definitely do not sign off this.

This sign-off is not an approval of the patch. This is the statement that this patch is based on your work which is subject to the license specified in the file and that you agreed that your original contribution (now modified) could be distributed with your sign-off. In no portion of the DCO does it state that a sign-off means you think the patch is a good idea or that you approve of it in any way.

I do want to be clear that I'm aware you don't approve of this patch and that's why I submitted a counterproposal: because I don't approve of your patch and you seem unwilling to make changes to it. I would love nothing more than to remove your name from it entirely, but unfortunately, that's not possible with the DCO.

-- 
brian m. carlson (he/him or they/them)
Houston, Texas, US