Path: utzoo!utstat!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!smoke.cs.toronto.edu!neat.cs.toronto.edu!moraes
Newsgroups: news.software.b
From: moraes@cs.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)
Subject: Re: cnews expire takes forever
Message-ID: <90Sep6.175510edt.558@smoke.cs.toronto.edu>
Keywords: awf, nroff clone, written in old awk, henry spencer lunacy (:-)
References: <173@usaos.UUCP> <1990Sep5.222003.10058@zoo.toronto.edu> <175@usaos.UUCP>
Date: 6 Sep 90 21:56:18 GMT
Lines: 41

In news.software.b you write:
>Needless to say, I will force myself to reformat ALL of the docs and read
>them completely before going any farther.  (anybody know of a good PD 
>{n|t}roff that I can get hold of?)

Henry made a cryptic mention of awf, written specifically for this
purpose.  Since it hasn't shown up in comp.sources.unix yet, an easier
way to grab it might be to snarf pub/awf.shar.Z by anonymous ftp from
cs.toronto.edu.  Here's awf.README.  Perhaps some kind soul from
osu-cis or uunet will put it there for people without Internet
access.  Alternatively, try the ftp by mail service offered by
bitftp@pucc.princeton.edu (send a message saying "help")

If you have GNU C++ (g++), you may want to grab groff instead and get
it working.  It'll probably run a tad faster.  On the other hand, awf
is smaller.

	Mark.
----------
This is awf, the Amazingly Workable Formatter -- a "nroff -man" or
(subset) "nroff -ms" clone written entirely in (old) awk.

It is slow and has many restrictions, but does a decent job on most
manual pages and simple -ms documents, and isn't subject to AT&T's
brain-damaged licensing that denies many System V users any text
formatter at all.  It is also a text formatter that is simple enough
to be tinkered with, for people who want to experiment.

Type "make r" to run a regression test, formatting the manual page
(awf.1) and comparing it to a preformatted copy (awf.1.out).  Type
"make install" to install it.  Pathnames may need changing.

I don't know whether awf will run on 16-bit machines.  Data requirements
are modest, but I fear the programs are probably big enough to run awk
out of space.

I can't believe I really wrote this.

                                         Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                          henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
						13 July 1990