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From: cwr@pnet01.cts.com (Will Rose)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Mroff 1.0
Message-ID: <6847@crash.cts.com>
Date: 11 Jan 91 09:36:02 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 46

The recently posted mroff looks like a good beginning - I tried it on
a 10MHz XT running 1.5.10, and much of it worked, albeit slowly.
 
Problems found:
 
1.  The file hindi.ms contains characters with the high bit set (these
aren't garbage characters).  The file therefore won't unshar, and stops
the rest of the docs unsharring. A swift edit with vi cures this.
 
2.  It would be easier to do the installation if there was an (ascii)
file called INSTALL; but the problems (siting an additional "include"
directory, stopping one unsharred Makefile overwriting another, are
pretty trivial.
 
3.  I use an Herc graphics card clone that works with all the MSDOS
software I've tried it with; and it almost works with hgc.  Hgc puts
the file on the screen in the right font, but the top left-hand corner
of the virtual screen is randomly sited on the physical screen.  All
the rest of the virtual screen is then wrapped right/left top/bottom
from the starting point.  About one time in ten it comes out square.
When I have time I'll look at this, unless someone else gets there
first.  By the way, it takes 20-30 sec to build a page on this
machine - not really practical for constant use.
 
4.  At the moment I have only 1.5MB of HD space free, so none of the
printer drivers apart from oki120 would build an output file, even
from a 2K original.  oki120 won't drive an Epson MX80 (produces
garbage), may drive an Epson RX80 (mine blew its power supply, but I
think that's a coincidence) and will drive an Epson LQ850.
 
All in all, a marvellous start.  I've wanted a troff for a long time,
and this looks as if its well on the way to becoming one.  To put stuff
on the screen you'll need a fast 286 or 386, in practice, but at least
it should be possible to print all these wretched manuals correctly.
 
Per ardua ad aspidistra - Will
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