All the files in outdated are mostly source as they were prior to
the move to the outdated part of the NetHack tree. They are left
there in case somone wants to try to resurrect a port.
They are not meant to be compiled, or used as-is.
A remnant hard-coded 370 was in package.nmake.
Note: The errant file was not used to construct the official
binaries. Those were done using sys/windows/Makefile.nmake.
Closes#1525
Add Makefile support for an optional AMIGPKGSEQ to
append a suffix to the Amiga binary, without having to
rename the zip file manually after the
make CROSS_TO_AMIGA=1 package
step.
Core changes routed transient inventory away from WIN_INVEN, so the
port's win == WIN_INVEN gate stopped matching and glyphs vanished.
Track has_glyphs on the menu and key rendering and sizing off that.
I noticed that the "Dungeons & Dragons" trademark acknowledgement should
be using the _registered_ trade mark sign instead of the more general
one, as the mark's enjoyed registered status (in the U.S.) since 1978.
https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/search/search-results/73123558
It occurred to me that updating the game description for a 2026 audience
might be an improvement on one that assumes the reader is familiar with
D&D, with Teletype machines ("TTYs"), and with the Rogue game, which
NetHack arguably eclipsed in notoriety decades ago.
So I rewrote it, and dropped the references to D&D. Besides, as of
commit c99da87c70, NetHack is incompatible with "Strength Table I." in
the AD&D Player's Handbook (TSR 2010, p. 9), so any grognard who lifts
would snatch NetHack's D&D membership card away anyway. ;-)
...where available.
groff_man_style(7):
Notes
...
• When and how should I use quotation marks?
... groff, Heirloom Doctools troff, neatroff, and mandoc support
all of the special characters \[oq], \[cq], \[lq], \[rq], \[aq],
and \[dq] described in subsection “Portability” above. DWB, Plan
9, and Solaris troffs do not. Interpolating the strings \*(lq
and \*(rq portably yields directional double quotation marks, if
available, in all these formatters (though neatroff does not
supply a man macro package), but they cannot reliably be used in
macro arguments.
* Set cross reference to "nethack" man page in lowercase, because that's
the name under which it's installed, and POSIX systems are
case-sensitive.
* Refer to the "nethack" command using a man page cross reference only
on its first occurrence.
* Favor bullets over hyphens for itemized list.
* Drop explicit indentation amounts from lists. The man(7) package's
default suffices on all of Solaris 10, DWB 3.3, Plan 9, Heirloom
Doctools, and GNU *roffs, and on mandoc(1).
* Use tagged paragraphs to set synopses of syntax productions used in
the documented file format.
* Drop inset (indentation) of itemized and tagged lists; the bullets
make the structure clear, and (with the foregoing change) this way the
paragraphs align.
* Identify NETHACKDIR and HACKDIR as environment variables.
* ...and set them italics, not roman.
* Set default playground directory name in italics, not roman.
* Set command names in italics.
* Refer to command operands as such, not as "options".
* Use man page cross reference on first occurrence of "nethack" when
referring to the command executable as opposed to the overall game.
Because some text is commented out (`ig`nored), meaning the "first"
occurrence appears twice (what's lexically present vs. what's
formatted) do this twice as future-proofing.
* Set file names in italics, not roman. Set variable parts of file
names in roman.
* Refer to "single-user systems" instead of "microcomputers"; the latter
is becoming antiquated terminology.
* Favor present tense over future.
* Tighten wording.
* Spell "save files" consistently as two words.
Tighten formatting: set synopsis syntax characters adjacently to
operands. Rename `-d` option argument from "directory" to
"playground-directory" for clarity.
Set operands more idiomatically. They are not given in pairs; instead
"base" can be repeated arbitrarily. See, for example, the POSIX
reference page for ls(1).
https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/utilities/ls.html
Format ellipsis idiomatically.
groff_man_style(7):
Notes
... The idiomatic roff ellipsis is three dots (periods) with thin
space escape sequences \| internally separating them. Since dots
both begin control lines and are candidate end‐of‐sentence
characters, however, it is sometimes necessary to prefix and/or
suffix an ellipsis with the dummy character escape sequence \&.
...on typesetters and UTF-8 terminals.
groff_man_style(7):
Portability
...
Several special characters are also widely portable. Except for
\-, \[em], and \[ga], AT&T troff did not consistently define the
characters listed below, but its descendants, like DWB, Plan 9, or
Solaris troff, can be made to support them by defining them in font
description files, making them aliases of existing glyphs if
necessary; see groff_font(5). groff’s extended notation for
special characters, \[xx], is also supported by mandoc(1), Heirloom
Doctools troff, and neatroff, but not DWB, Plan 9, or Solaris
troffs.
...
\[ha] Basic Latin circumflex accent (“hat”). Some output devices
format “^” as U+02C6 (modifier letter circumflex accent).
Notes
Some tips on composing and troubleshooting your man pages follow.
...
• Escape sequences of the form \[xx] don’t format correctly.
The \[xx] special character escape sequence is a GNU troff
extension also supported by mandoc, Heirloom Doctools troff, and
neatroff. DWB, Plan 9, and Solaris troffs don’t implement it.
If your man page requires portability to these formatters, spell
such escape sequences as “\(xx”; no closing parenthesis is used.
xx must be exactly two characters; groff_char(7) lists portable
special character identifiers.
Revise presentation of backward-compatible role options.
- Give them a metasyntactic variable name and present them in the main
command synopsis.
- Present the possible values in a typographical display, indented with
filling disabled.
Set it as a hanging paragraph, as is idiomatic for Unix command
synopses. Tighten formatting: set synopsis syntax characters adjacently
to operands. Also drop explicit line breaks, permitting synopsis to
exercise the configured line length of the selected output device.
Temporarily disable adjustment in a manner more friendly to the system's
(or user's) configuration.[1] Stop attempting to manipulate
hyphenation; there's no portable way to do that.[2]
Before and after, as rendered with Solaris 10, DWB 3.3, and Plan 9
troffs:
- nethack [ -d|--directory directory ] [ -w|--windowtype
- interface ]
- [ --nethackrc:rc-file | --no-nethackrc ] [ -n ] [ -dec |
- -ibm ]
- [ -u player-name ] [ -X | -D ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ]
- [ -@ ]
+ nethack [-d|--directory directory]
+ [-w|--windowtype interface]
+ [--nethackrc:rc-file|--no-nethackrc] [-n] [-dec|-ibm]
+ [-u player-name] [-X|-D] [-p profession] [-r race] [-@]
Not shown: Literal text is in bold, and option arguments in italics.
(Full disclosure: The aforementioned formatters use different page
offsets [left margin sizes], and Plan 9 nroff doesn't render _any_
typeface changes, ever, for any document using any macro package.)
Before and after, as rendered with groff, mandoc, and Heirloom Doctools
troff:
- [ --nethackrc:rc-file | --no-nethackrc ] [ -n ] [ -dec | -ibm ]
- [ -u player-name ] [ -X | -D ] [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [ -@ ]
+ nethack [-d|--directory directory] [-w|--windowtype interface]
+ [--nethackrc:rc-file|--no-nethackrc] [-n] [-dec|-ibm]
+ [-u player-name] [-X|-D] [-p profession] [-r race] [-@]
(Full disclosure: groff 1.24.x man(7) uses a default line length of
80n,[3] up from the 78n of its previous releases going back to 2002, and
used by Heirloom Doctools and mandoc.)
[1] https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/an.tmac?h=1.24.1#n159
[2] https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/tmac/an.tmac?h=1.24.1#n202
[3] https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/groff.git/tree/NEWS?h=1.24.1#n509
Set it as a hanging paragraph, as is idiomatic for Unix command
synopses. Tighten formatting: set synopsis syntax characters adjacently
to operands. Since viewing the scoreboard is a separate mode of
operation, arrange first the options that select this mode.[1] Also
drop explicit line breaks, permitting synopsis to exercise the
configured line length of the selected output device.
Before and after, as rendered with Solaris 10 troff:
- nethack [ -d|--directory directory ] -s|--scores [ -v ]
- [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [ player-name ...]
+ nethack {-s|--scores} [-d|--directory directory] [-v]
+ [-p profession] [-r race] [player-name ...]
Before and after, as rendered with groff, mandoc, and Heirloom Doctools
troff:
- nethack [ -d|--directory directory ] -s|--scores [ -v ]
- [ -p profession ] [ -r race ] [ player‐name ...]
+ nethack {-s|--scores} [-d|--directory directory] [-v] [-p profession]
+ [-r race] [player‐name ...]
Not shown: Literal text is in bold, and option arguments in italics.
[1] See, for example,
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799.2024edition/utilities/compress.html>.
nhmall