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Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!me!eastick
Newsgroups: comp.text,news.software.b,comp.lang.perl
From: eastick@me.utoronto.ca (Doug Eastick)
Subject: Awf: Henry's Amazingly Workable Formatter (was Re: Groff)
Message-ID: <90Nov14.184836est.19909@me.utoronto.ca>
Organization: University of Toronto, Department of Mechanical Engineering
References: <28619@shamash.cdc.com> <10354@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV> <1990Nov14.094039.11153@robobar.co.uk>
Date: 14 Nov 90 23:48:44 GMT

lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) writes:
> By the way, does anyone have a compiled copy of groff for Sun3 or Sun4 (4.1)
> or even Vax or Pyramid?  I've spent hours trying to get it to compile and
> run, and don't have any more time to piddle with it.  It would make me
> Very Happy if there was somewhere I could ftp a runnable copy.  You'll
> never guess what I want to groff a copy of...

I installed Perl on SGI's that DON'T come with troffy stuff unless you
pay for it.  I used Henry Spencer's awf(1) [comp.sources.(unix|misc)]
to format a couple of the smaller man pages, and it even did a "not so
bad" job on the Perl man page.  Problems with the lines:
	''
which mostly contained comments and other things.  Makes the pages
readable enough for me.

Henry:	Thanks for another unbelievable example on how to use blah(1)
	[where blah can be awk, sh, sed, etc...].  I really can't
	believe the thing works.  Slow as a pig, but it works.
	C news is becoming a working "how to use unix tools" example.

Out of curiosity, I ran the awf.awk scripts thru a2p to see what the
perl looks like.  Yecch.  Hey Larry, maybe use these things as tests
for a2p(1) ? :-)