[bug #63958] [mdoc] decide how to set up hanging indent in Synopsis sections

[Ingo Schwarze]

Follow-up Comment #8, bug #63958 (project groff):

re comment #5:

re bug #63046: We both know that i dislike excessive, gratuitious
configurability like that - it add complexity without any benefit, no need to
discuss that over and over again.  I can live with it as long as the defaults
are sane, such that i can hardcode the defaults into mandoc(1).

I call "5n is better" an objective assessment because it does not rely on
personal taste but purely relies on factual arguments:

1. Both macro sets agree that subsection indentation is 3n, so that should not
be changed.

2. Obviously, paragraph indentation must be greater than subsection
indentation.  4n would not be a good choice because that's so close to 3n that
subsection headers would not stand out from the text, because headers and text
would be easy to confuse.

3. Looking at any mdoc(7) page containing subsections shows that 5n is
sufficient to make the two instantly distinguishable.  Consequently, anything
more than 5n is a waste.

I agree that subjective judgement would be required to decide whether any
particular amount of waste would be acceptable to trade for some potential
benefit.  But no one made any claim that 7n provides any benefit, the only
fact mentioned is that's what groff_man(7) - and for compatibility, mandoc(1)
man(7) - currently does.

Your detailed questions all seem irrelevant.  The fact that one implies a
waste and the other does not makes the other better.

I would very much welcome a change from 7n to 5n and would make sure mandoc(1)
immediately follows.


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