Re: Groff macro to make .UR and .UE links clickable in PDF?

[Steve Izma]

On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 12:32:54PM -0700, Michael Pirkola wrote:
> Subject: Re: Groff macro to make .UR and .UE links clickable in PDF?
> 
> While I agree that a shorter line length is more readable, I
> frequently exit a manpage, maximise the terminal window, then
> reopen it when my goal is to quickly scan the page for a
> relevant option.  I find argument lists in particular much
> easier to look through when they take up fewer lines.  Manpages
> in particular are less likely to have large paragraphs of text,
> and a long line length commonly reduces an entire topic to a
> single line which I also find more convenient.

You have a point in that scanning for info is not reading, and
therefore doesn't require the same kind of concentration and
doesn't result in as much fatigue. I'm arguing about the
difficulty in trying to read and comprehend all of a text when
the typography makes the eye work harder. So perhaps the default
should be related to the most common way of using man pages.
Somehow, though, if I were the author of a man page (which I'm
not, but I've written lots of text about how to use software) I
would probably want the presentation of my writing to be as
inviting as possible. Using the --help option on a command line
is my preferred way to scan but, of course, when I need more
detail about an option your suggestion makes good sense.

        -- Steve

-- 
Steve Izma
-
Home: 35 Locust St., Kitchener, Ontario, Canada  N2H 1W6
E-mail: sizma@golden.net  phone: 519-745-1313
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==
I have always felt the necessity to verify what to many seemed a
simple multiplication table.
        -- Ilya Ehrenburg (Soviet author and critic; he's not
           talking about mathematics)