cvs commit: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall chapter.sgml

[John Baldwin]

On Wednesday, October 12, 2011 12:41:01 pm Ulrich Spörlein wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-10-12 at 09:41:17 -0400, Glen Barber wrote:
> > On 10/12/11 9:37 AM, Niclas Zeising wrote:
> > > On 10/12/11 15:31, Glen Barber wrote:
> > >> On 10/12/11 9:27 AM, Ulrich Spörlein wrote:
> > >>> On Mon, 2011-10-10 at 17:29:26 +0000, Glen Barber wrote:
> > >>>> gjb         2011-10-10 17:29:26 UTC
> > >>>>
> > >>>>    FreeBSD doc repository
> > >>>>
> > >>>>    Modified files:
> > >>>>      en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall chapter.sgml
> > >>>>    Log:
> > >>>>    Use two spaces between end of sentence and beginning of sentence.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>    Revision  Changes    Path
> > >>>>    1.9       +10 -10   
> > >>>> doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall/chapter.sgml
> > >>>
> > >>> Why oh why? Please stop doing that, it's pointless, annoying and will
> > >>> get lost with paragraph reformatting eventually and is not significant
> > >>> in the generated output.
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >> It follows the FDP standards as noted directly before Chapter 10.1 here:
> > >>
> > >> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/fdp-primer/writing-style.html
> > >>
> > > 
> > > From what I've come to understand it does not matter for the rendered
> > > output. 
> > 
> > The only "significant" spaces in SGML/HTML output is " ".
> > 
> > > It makes the source (i.e. sgml file) more readable though.
> > 
> > In addition to being "proper" writing style.
> 
> Yes, the 20th century called and wants you to return your typewriter.
> 
> Please stop this double-spaced end of sentence madness.
> http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

I don't know about you, but due to the significance of whitespace indentation
in most of the stuff I work on (code, etc.), I almost exclusively use
monospace fonts and not proportional space fonts (on the system console you
have no choice in that matter, you are forced to use monospace).  In that
environment the double space does make sense (as the article you quoted
notes).

Part of the goal of a style guide is so that code (or documentation) uses a
consistent style so that anyone in the group can easily work with it.  Yes,
it may not suit your personal style to conform to the group's agreed-upon
guidelines, but it is better for the overall project if you do.  I know that
style(9) was not my preferred style when I first became a committer, but
rather than fighting for something like a four-space indent I (mostly)
conformed to the existing style instead (with a lot of help from bde).  I
think having a consistent style is important, and that with the volume of
existing documentation that already uses double spaces, we should just
stick with that.

-- 
John Baldwin