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+<div class="subsection-level-extent" id="Input-Conventions">
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+<p>
+Previous: <a href="Input-Encodings.html" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Input Encodings</a>, Up: <a href="Text.html" accesskey="u" rel="up">Text</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Request-Index.html" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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+<hr>
+<h4 class="subsection" id="Input-Conventions-1">5.1.10 Input Conventions</h4>
+<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-input-conventions"></a>
+<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-conventions-for-input"></a>
+
+<p>Since GNU <code class="code">troff</code> fills text automatically, it is common practice
+in the <code class="code">roff</code> language to avoid visual composition of text in input
+files: the esthetic appeal of the formatted output is what matters.
+Therefore, <code class="code">roff</code> input should be arranged such that it is easy for
+authors and maintainers to compose and develop the document, understand
+the syntax of <code class="code">roff</code> requests, macro calls, and preprocessor
+languages used, and predict the behavior of the formatter. Several
+traditions have accrued in service of these goals.
+</p>
+<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
+<li>Follow sentence endings in the input with newlines to ease their
+recognition (see <a class="pxref" href="Sentences.html">Sentences</a>). It is frequently convenient to end
+text lines after colons and semicolons as well, as these typically
+precede independent clauses. Consider doing so after commas; they often
+occur in lists that become easy to scan when itemized by line, or
+constitute supplements to the sentence that are added, deleted, or
+updated to clarify it. Parenthetical and quoted phrases are also good
+candidates for placement on text lines by themselves.
+
+</li><li>Set your text editor&rsquo;s line length to 72 characters or
+fewer.<a class="footnote" id="DOCF32" href="groff.html_fot.html#FOOT32"><sup>32</sup></a>
+This limit, combined with the previous item of advice, makes it less
+common that an input line will wrap in your text editor, and thus will
+help you perceive excessively long constructions in your text. Recall
+that natural languages originate in speech, not writing, and that
+punctuation is correlated with pauses for breathing and changes in
+prosody.
+
+</li><li>Use <code class="code">\&amp;</code> after &lsquo;<samp class="samp">!</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">?</samp>&rsquo;, and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">.</samp>&rsquo; if they are
+followed by space, tab, or newline characters and don&rsquo;t end a sentence.
+
+</li><li>In filled text lines, use <code class="code">\&amp;</code> before &lsquo;<samp class="samp">.</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">'</samp>&rsquo; if they
+are preceded by space, so that reflowing the input doesn&rsquo;t turn them
+into control lines.
+
+</li><li>Do not use spaces to perform indentation or align columns of a table.
+Leading spaces are reliable when text is not being filled.
+
+</li><li>Comment your document. It is never too soon to apply comments to
+record information of use to future document maintainers (including your
+future self). We thus introduce another escape sequence, <code class="code">\&quot;</code>,
+which causes GNU <code class="code">troff</code> to ignore the remainder of the input line.
+
+</li><li>Use the empty request&mdash;a control character followed immediately by a
+newline&mdash;to visually manage separation of material in input files.
+Many of the <code class="code">groff</code> project&rsquo;s own documents use an empty request
+between sentences, after macro definitions, and where a break is
+expected, and two empty requests between paragraphs or other requests or
+macro calls that will introduce vertical space into the document.
+
+<p>You can combine the empty request with the comment escape sequence to
+include whole-line comments in your document, and even &ldquo;comment out&rdquo;
+sections of it.
+</p></li></ul>
+
+<p>We conclude this section with an example sufficiently long to illustrate
+most of the above suggestions in practice. For the purpose of fitting
+the example between the margins of this manual with the font used for
+its typeset version, we have shortened the input line length to 56
+columns. As before, an arrow &rarr; indicates a tab character.
+</p>
+<table class="cartouche" border="1"><tr><td>
+<div class="example">
+<pre class="example-preformatted">.\&quot; nroff this_file.roff | less
+.\&quot; groff -T ps this_file.roff &gt; this_file.ps
+&rarr;The theory of relativity is intimately connected with
+the theory of space and time.
+.
+I shall therefore begin with a brief investigation of
+the origin of our ideas of space and time,
+although in doing so I know that I introduce a
+controversial subject. \&quot; remainder of paragraph elided
+.
+.
+
+&rarr;The experiences of an individual appear to us arranged
+in a series of events;
+in this series the single events which we remember
+appear to be ordered according to the criterion of
+\[lq]earlier\[rq] and \[lq]later\[rq], \&quot; punct swapped
+which cannot be analysed further.
+.
+There exists,
+therefore,
+for the individual,
+an I-time,
+or subjective time.
+.
+This itself is not measurable.
+.
+I can,
+indeed,
+associate numbers with the events,
+in such a way that the greater number is associated with
+the later event than with an earlier one;
+but the nature of this association may be quite
+arbitrary.
+.
+This association I can define by means of a clock by
+comparing the order of events furnished by the clock
+with the order of a given series of events.
+.
+We understand by a clock something which provides a
+series of events which can be counted,
+and which has other properties of which we shall speak
+later.
+.\&quot; Albert Einstein, _The Meaning of Relativity_, 1922
+</pre></div>
+</td></tr></table>
+
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