Re: misc/39121

[David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR misc/39121; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: David Holland <dholland-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost>
To: "Valeriy E. Ushakov" <uwe%netbsd.org@localhost>
Cc: misc-bug-people%netbsd.org@localhost, gnats-admin%netbsd.org@localhost,
        gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost, netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost, 
mac%S.culver.net@localhost
Subject: Re: misc/39121
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:37:01 +0000

 On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 08:40:02PM +0000, Valeriy E. Ushakov wrote:
  > From: "Valeriy E. Ushakov" <uwe%netbsd.org@localhost>
  > To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
  > Cc: 
  > Subject: Re: misc/39121
  > Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:35:36 +0400
  > 
  >  I'm strongly against this.  I posit that current layout is much better
  >  for a typical use case when you only need to operate in a single base.
  >  
  >  I find the proposed layout illogically formatted, verbose and hard to
  >  read.
 
 The legibility can be improved a good bit by tinkering with the
 horizontal spacing and the column ordering, e.g. like this:
 
 nul    0  00  000         32  20  040     @   64  40  100     `    96  60  140 
 soh    1  01  001     !   33  21  041     A   65  41  101     a    97  61  141 
 stx    2  02  002     "   34  22  042     B   66  42  102     b    98  62  142 
 etx    3  03  003     #   35  23  043     C   67  43  103     c    99  63  143 
 eot    4  04  004     $   36  24  044     D   68  44  104     d   100  64  144 
 enq    5  05  005     %   37  25  045     E   69  45  105     e   101  65  145 
 ack    6  06  006     &   38  26  046     F   70  46  106     f   102  66  146 
 bel    7  07  007     '   39  27  047     G   71  47  107     g   103  67  147 
 bs     8  08  010     (   40  28  050     H   72  48  110     h   104  68  150 
 ht     9  09  011     )   41  29  051     I   73  49  111     i   105  69  151 
 nl    10  0a  012     *   42  2a  052     J   74  4a  112     j   106  6a  152 
 
 However, I'm not convinced it's an improvement either, plus that's too
 wide for nroff to generate successfully.
 
 I do think though that maybe the tables in the existing page should be
 flipped so they read down instead of across. (And, ideally they should
 be set in tbl rather than being preformatted fixed-width text.)
 
 -- 
 David A. Holland
 dholland%netbsd.org@localhost