Latex: terms are not separated by a newline

[marxin]

Describe the bug

I use simple indentations for terms and their explanation:

Example:

Listing:

:samp:`{file}.cc` :samp:`{file}.cp` :samp:`{file}.cxx` :samp:`{file}.cpp` :samp:`{file}.CPP` :samp:`{file}.c++` :samp:`{file}.C`
  C++ source code that must be preprocessed.  Note that in :samp:`.cxx`,
  the last two letters must both be literally :samp:`x`.  Likewise,
  :samp:`.C` refers to a literal capital C.

:samp:`{file}.mm` :samp:`{file}.M`
  Objective-C++ source code that must be preprocessed.

:samp:`{file}.mii`
  Objective-C++ source code that should not be preprocessed.

:samp:`{file}.hh` :samp:`{file}.H` :samp:`{file}.hp` :samp:`{file}.hxx` :samp:`{file}.hpp` :samp:`{file}.HPP` :samp:`{file}.h++` :samp:`{file}.tcc`
  C++ header file to be turned into a precompiled header or Ada spec

Which results in the following HTML output:

Alabaster:

RTD theme:

While xelatex output does not contain a new line:

@jfbu

How to Reproduce

Build the snippet.

Expected behavior

No response

Your project

Build the snippet

Screenshots

No response

OS

Linux

Python version

3.8

Sphinx version

4.3.0

Sphinx extensions

No response

Extra tools

No response

Additional context

No response

[tk0miya]

I don't think this is not a bug. It's not promised a term and description of the definition list are displayed as line-folded.

But I agree it's better to fold them as HTML does.

[marxin]

Great, thanks for the suggested pull request!

[jfbu]

@marxin It may take some time before a solution is found because the natural #9988 approach breaks some numpy's LaTeX hack. As a work-around you may try to add to your project their hack

latex_elements = {
    'preamble': r'''
% In the parameters section, place a newline after the Parameters
% header
\usepackage{expdlist}
\let\latexdescription=\description
\def\description{\latexdescription{}{} \breaklabel}
% but expdlist old LaTeX package requires fixes:
% 1) remove extra space
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\makeatletter
\patchcmd\@item{{\@breaklabel} }{{\@breaklabel}}{}{}
\makeatother
% 2) fix bug in expdlist's way of breaking the line after long item label
\makeatletter
\def\breaklabel{%
    \def\@breaklabel{%
        \leavevmode\par
        % now a hack because Sphinx inserts \leavevmode after term node
        \def\leavevmode{\def\leavevmode{\unhbox\voidb@x}}%
    }%
}
\makeatother
''',
}

I am not completely happy with the resulting looks (see #9988 (comment)) but it may serve temporarily.