X-Git-Url: https://git.stg.codes/stg.git/blobdiff_plain/0c9c28efcd43f53ac54aa60b2dfefa69c70dbadf..6b6d9b29e9e9e91f79507a8bf193fb30de311dcc:/doc/help/xslt/params/man.justify.xml diff --git a/doc/help/xslt/params/man.justify.xml b/doc/help/xslt/params/man.justify.xml new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5495d05c --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/help/xslt/params/man.justify.xml @@ -0,0 +1,52 @@ + + +man.justify +boolean + + +man.justify +Justify text to both right and left margins? + + + + +0 + + +Description + +If non-zero, text is justified to both the right and left +margins (or, in roff terminology, "adjusted and filled" to both the +right and left margins). If zero (the default), text is adjusted to +the left margin only -- producing what is traditionally called +"ragged-right" text. + + +The default value for this parameter is zero because justified +text looks good only when it is also hyphenated. Without hyphenation, +excessive amounts of space often end up getting between words, in +order to "pad" lines out to align on the right margin. + +The problem is that groff is not particularly smart about how it +does hyphenation; it can end up hyphenating a lot of things that you +don't want hyphenated. So, disabling both justification and +hyphenation ensures that hyphens won't get inserted where you don't +want to them, and you don't end up with lines containing excessive +amounts of space between words. + +However, if do you decide to set a non-zero value for the +man.justify parameter (to enable +justification), then you should probably also set a non-zero value for +man.hyphenate (to enable hyphenation). + +Yes, these default settings run counter to how most existing man +pages are formatted. But there are some notable exceptions, such as +the perl man pages. + + +