bug#71167: 29.3; vtable: documentation bug

[Joost Kremers]

On Fri, May 24 2024, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Joost Kremers <joostkremers@fastmail.fm>
>> Date: Fri, 24 May 2024 09:20:28 +0200
>> 
>> The documentation for 'make-vtable' in vtable.texi has a small bug. Patch
>> attached.
>
> Thanks, but...
>
>>  @item width
>>  The width of the column.  This is either a number (the width of that
>>  many @samp{x} characters in the table's face), or a string on the form
>> -@samp{Xe@var{x}}, where @var{x} is a number of @samp{x} characters, or a
>> -string on the form @samp{Xp@var{x}} (denoting a number of pixels), or a
>> -string on the form @samp{X%} (a percentage of the window's width).
>> +@samp{@var{x}ex}, where @var{x} is a number of @samp{x} characters, or a
>> +string on the form @samp{@var{x}px} (denoting a number of pixels), or a
>> +string on the form @samp{@var{x}%} (a percentage of the window's width).
>
> ...this sentence is a mouthfull: very hard to understand, and the use
> of "x" in several different roles doesn't help.  Can we please reword
> this to be more clear?

Would it help if the x's that refer to a number were replaced with 'n'?

     ‘width’
          The width of the column.  This is either a number (the width
          of that many ‘x’ characters in the table's face), or a string
          on the form ‘Nex’, where N is a number of ‘x’ characters, or a
          string on the form ‘Npx’ (denoting a number of pixels), or a
          string on the form ‘N%’ (a percentage of the window's width).

In source:

```
@item width
The width of the column.  This is either a number (the width of that
many @samp{x} characters in the table's face), or a string on the form
@samp{@var{n}ex}, where @var{n} is a number of @samp{x} characters, or a
string on the form @samp{@var{n}px} (denoting a number of pixels), or a
string on the form @samp{@var{n}%} (a percentage of the window's width).
```


-- 
Joost Kremers
Life has its moments