NEWS: Warn of the man page - ` ' change.

Also point out one of the benefits, though I'm dubious how much good
that will do for man page writers who stroke their long Unix beards
affectedly while never using anything but LibreOffice Writer for
typesetting...

1 files changed, 15 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 5a4fd240b..a28db5864 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -185,6 +185,19 @@ o The new sboxes macro package, contributed by Deri James, offers a
   See "Using PDF boxes with groff and the ms macros", installed as
   `msboxes.ms` and `msboxes.pdf` for instructions and a demonstration.
 
+o The an (man) and doc (mdoc) macro packages no longer remap the -, ',
+  and ` input characters to Basic Latin code points on UTF-8 devices,
+  but treat them as groff normally does (and AT&T troff before it did)
+  for typesetting devices, where they become the hyphen, apostrophe or
+  right single quotation mark, and left single quotation mark,
+  respectively.  This change is expected to expose glyph usage errors in
+  man pages.  See the "PROBLEMS" file for a recipe that will conceal
+  these errors.  A better long-term approach is for man pages to adopt
+  correct input practices; the man pages groff_man_style(7),
+  groff_char(7), and man-pages(7) (subsection "Generating optimal
+  glyphs"; from the Linux man-pages project) contain such instructions.
+  Doing so also improves man page typography when formatting for PDF.
+
 o The an (man) macro package can now produce clickable hyperlinks within
   terminal emulators, using the OSC 8 support added to grotty(1) (see
   below).  The groff man(7) extension macros `UR` and `MT`, present
@@ -449,7 +462,8 @@ o The "utf8" output device now maps the input characters '^' (caret,
   long-term approach is for man pages to adopt correct input practices;
   the man pages groff_man_style(7), groff_char(7), and man-pages(7)
   (subsection "Generating optimal glyphs"; from the Linux man-pages
-  project) contain such instructions.
+  project) contain such instructions.  Doing so also improves man page
+  typography when formatting for PDF.
 
   If you maintain a generator of man(7) or mdoc(7) documents (such as a
   tool that converts other formats to them), and need assistance, please