Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!hpfinote!pnl From: pnl@hpfinote.HP.COM (Peter Lim) Newsgroups: comp.sources.wanted Subject: Re: nroff wanted (results) Message-ID: <19760005@hpfinote.HP.COM> Date: 4 May 90 21:38:48 GMT Organization: Hewlett Packard CICD Lines: 74 For the benefit of the netlanders at large, Re: Hunt for text formatter to handle UNIX man pages. ------------------------------------------------- The conclusion ? I've sent away to a few SIMTEL20 sites and got all the following packages (PROFF.ARC was from an internal HP site) after being bounced around a few times. > Directory PD: > PCROFF.ARC B 45512 881129 Text formatter like Unix 'roff' > PROFF.ARC B 92981 880226 Roff-like printer driver > Directory PD: > NROSRC.ARC B 23040 870514 Source code for 'nroff' program for MSDOS > PCROFF is directed at printers and doesn't support laserjet anyway, so it is quite useless for me. Remember that I'm after something that handles UNIX style man pages and not a text formatter in general. NROSRC contains NRO which is a very ancient version of NROFF; it does come with the "man" macro but is rather limited. It doesn't handle the backslash commands (ie. \fB) which abound in modern UNIX man pages. From the few man pages I tried, there are quite a few macros not defined (I suppose I can go ahead and define them, if at all possible). The source is fairly structured and nice, but the code handling is hard coded which makes changes a little harder. I felt that it should be possible to hack the backslash command handling into the code; but there's no guarantee and I've to find time to do that. PROFF is like a partial superset of NRO. Some commands are missing but there are quite a lot of extension. Would do well if you want a text formatter inferior to troff. I didn't look at the source code in detail, but a glance impressed upon me that it would be harder to hack this code than to hack NROSRC. ------------------------------------------------- All in all, I was not able to find a package that will handle modern UNIX man pages so far. I hope someone can give me some clue on where to look for more up to date version of either NRO or PROFF. Short of that, I'll have to hack NRO into doing the job; when will that be done is anybody's guess. =============================================================================== Just after I wrote the above, someone pointed out that I can get hold of NROFF from a MINIX source archive. I seem to have mis-placed the mail somewhere. Anyway, the general idea is send the following lines to "listserv@vm1.nodak.edu": get pc-upd 150-65 minix get pc-upd 150-66 minix I did and received the NROFF package. I tried it and apparently this is a more up to date version of the NRO package I mentioned above. Somewhere in the source code mentioned that it has been 'heavily hacked to handle more modern man pages format'. It seems much better than NRO, but still missing quite a few macros. I tried to create these macros. Got some done, but I still can't get .RS .RE .TP to work properly. I believe, this has something to do with the limited 'variable handling' capability of the package (ie. in \nX, X can only be [a-zA-Z]). Anybody know of an even more up to date version ? or want to create these macro / hack the source code ? Go ahead, I think I've spent more than enough time on this for now. Regards, ## Life is fast enough as it is ........ Peter Lim. ## .... DON'T PUSH IT !! >>>-------, ########################################### : E-mail: plim@hpsgwg.HP.COM Snail-mail: Hewlett Packard Singapore, : Tel: (065)-279-2289 (ICDS, ICS) | Telnet: 520-2289 1150 Depot Road, __\@/__ ... also at: pnl@hpfipnl.HP.COM Singapore 0410. SPLAT !