diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'www/text.causal.agency/002-writing-mdoc.7')
-rw-r--r-- | www/text.causal.agency/002-writing-mdoc.7 | 138 |
1 files changed, 138 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/www/text.causal.agency/002-writing-mdoc.7 b/www/text.causal.agency/002-writing-mdoc.7 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..92c2fc05 --- /dev/null +++ b/www/text.causal.agency/002-writing-mdoc.7 @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +.Dd September 27, 2018 +.Dt WRITING-MDOC 7 +.Os "Causal Agency" +. +.Sh NAME +.Nm Writing mdoc +.Nd semantic markup +. +.Sh DESCRIPTION +I recently learned how to write man pages +so that I could document +a bunch of little programs I've written. +Modern man pages are written in +.Xr mdoc 7 , +whose documentation is also available from +.Lk http://mandoc.bsd.lv . +. +.Pp +.Xr mdoc 7 +differs from many other markup languages +by providing +.Dq semantic markup +rather than just +.Dq physical markup. +What this means is that +the markup indicates what something is, +not how to format it. +For example, +the +.Ql \&Ar +macro is used to indicate +command-line arguments +rather than one of the macros +for bold, italic or underline. +This frees each author of having to choose +and enables consistent presentation +across different man pages. +. +.Pp +Another advantage of semantic markup +is that information can be extracted from it. +For example, +.Xr makewhatis 8 +can easily extract the name and short description +from each man page +thanks to the +.Ql \&Nm +and +.Ql \&Nd +macros. +I use the same information +to generate an Atom feed for these documents, +though in admittedly a much less robust way than +.Xr mandoc 1 . +. +.Pp +When it comes to actually writing +.Xr mdoc 7 , +it can take some getting used to. +The language is of +.Xr roff 7 +lineage +so its syntax is very particular. +Macros cannot appear inline, +but must start on new lines +beginning with +.Ql \&. . +Sentences should likewise +always start on a new line. +Since I'm in the habit of writing with +semantic line breaks, +I actually find these requirements +fit in well. +. +.Pp +The more frustrating syntax limitation to me +is the rule against empty lines. +Without them, +it can be quite difficult to edit a lengthy document. +Thankfully, +lines with only a +.Ql \&. +on them are allowed, +but this still causes visual noise. +To alleviate that, +I have a +.Xr vim 1 +syntax file for +.Xr mdoc 7 +which conceals the lone dots: +. +.Bd -literal -offset indent +if exists("b:current_syntax") + finish +endif + +runtime! syntax/nroff.vim +unlet! b:current_syntax + +setlocal sections+=ShSs +syntax match mdocBlank /^\\.$/ conceal +setlocal conceallevel=2 + +let b:current_syntax = "mdoc" +.Ed +. +.Pp +It also adds the +.Xr mdoc 7 +section header and subsection header macros to the +.Cm sections +option to make +.Xr vim 1 Ap s +.Ic { +and +.Ic } +motions +aware of them. +. +.Pp +With that, +I've found writing man pages pleasant and rewarding. +I've started writing other documents with +.Xr mdoc 7 +as well, +as you can see here. +. +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Lk http://rhodesmill.org/brandon/2012/one-sentence-per-line/ "Semantic Linefeeds" +. +.Sh AUTHORS +.An June Aq Mt june@causal.agency +. +.Pp +This document is produced from +.Xr mdoc 7 +source available from +.Lk https://code.causal.agency/june/text.causal.agency "Code Toilet" |