style.mdoc.5: Document the conventions for -width

[0mp]

Summary

MFC after: 1 week

[0mp]

Perhaps it would be nice to mention that sometimes the best idea is to set -width to the longest item "of reasonable length" (less than 10 characters?).

[debdrup]

In D33394#755020, @0mp wrote:

Perhaps it would be nice to mention that sometimes the best idea is to set -width to the longest item "of reasonable length" (less than 10 characters?).

Isn't there also an intersection regarding the 80 columns thing, since manual pages live in the src tree?

[bjk]

share/man/man5/style.mdoc.5

131

Should we note that when replicating the "longest item in the list" as the -width argument, macros should be excluded?

[0mp]

In D33394#755041, @debdrup wrote:

In D33394#755020, @0mp wrote:

Perhaps it would be nice to mention that sometimes the best idea is to set -width to the longest item "of reasonable length" (less than 10 characters?).

Isn't there also an intersection regarding the 80 columns thing, since manual pages live in the src tree?

Potentially. I'm not sure how to make this connection though in the manual page...

[0mp]

share/man/man5/style.mdoc.5

131

This is a nice idea. In a way, it's implicitly suggested in line 133 \&.Bl -tag -width "-a address". But perhaps we can add an explicit note about this convention.

[0mp]

Thanks a lot for reviewing the change!