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
G. Branden Robinson
44c8405000