How to use Python well?

Roy Smith roy at panix.com
Sat Feb 19 07:40:20 EST 2011


In article <slrnilv0ls.15e.grahn+nntp at frailea.sa.invalid>,
 Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp at snipabacken.se> wrote:

> Some disagreement here. There are typographical features in
> nroff/troff today which you don't get in web browsers: ligatures and
> hyphenation for example.

Saying that HTML doesn't have ligatures and hyphenation is kind of like 
saying Python is a bad programming language because it doesn't come in 
purple.

Yes, n/troff does ligatures and hyphenation.  Are such things really 
essential for an on-line reference manual?  The ligatures, clearly not, 
since what most of us are talking about here are the plain-text 
renditions you get with the on-line "man" output.

Hyphenation?  I suppose it has some value for this kind of stuff, but it 
can also be a pain.  What happens when you're grepping the man page for 
"egregious" and can't find it because it got hyphenated?

No, those are things you want for typesetting documents, not for 
browsing on-line reference material.  And I can't imagine anybody using 
troff for typesetting today.  I'm sure there are a few people who will 
pop out of the woodwork insisting they do, but when it comes to 
typesetting, "I want a tool, not a hobby".



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