This comment from the package maintainer caught my eye. It is in response to the upstream author’s proposal to turn the hyphens problem — caused by man page au

This comment from the package maintainer caught my eye. It is in response to the upstream author’s proposal to turn the hyphens problem — caused by man page authors but felt by anyone who uses man — into everyone’s problem. The suggestion was that doing so is the right way to persuade man page authors to fix their “bugs”. ”Externalizing costs onto relatively powerless consumers in the hope of using them to relay complaints to the people in power offends my sense of natural justice.” It reminds me of the “Knee Defender” — plastic blocks designed to help airline passengers disable the recline feature not on their own seat, but on the seat in front of them. Part of the marketing copy from the manufacturer was that if your fellow passengers complain about you using these blocks then you should encourage them to complain to the airline with you, to appeal together for more space for everyone on board. What a selfish and asinine suggestion that was. The upstream groff maintainer’s position is not dissimilar.