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Path: utzoo!mnetor!yetti!geac!david
From: david@geac.UUCP (David Haynes)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: RE: why troff (actually why not)
Message-ID: <505@geac.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Jan-87 08:26:55 EST
Article-I.D.: geac.505
Posted: Wed Jan 28 08:26:55 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 29-Jan-87 01:11:55 EST
Organization: GEAC Computers, Toronto, CANADA
Lines: 31


In a word, DRIVERS.

I have been trying for over a year now to obtain a
ditroff driver for our LN03 laser. Guess what?
Nobody's got one! So I take a look at TeX -- an
LN03 driver right on the distribution tape! WOW.

A number of people have been stating that troff
comes with UNIX. This may be true (although some
vendors charge extra for the stuff) but how many
people have the equipment to use the standard
drivers supplied with troff? How many people have
not hit at lease one major troff stupidity?

With TeX, I get full source, documentation, a driver
for our laser, LaTeX, BibTeX, SliTeX and a host of
public-domain software - for free! I can buy previewers
for IBM and Macintosh devices and can even subscribe
to a newletter to tell me more. If a real problem
arises, I can even contact Richard Furuta or Donald Knuth.

Try to find anyone who knows Troff that well.

-david-

-- 
==========================================================================
David Haynes					(utzoo!yetti!geac!david)
Geac Computers International Inc.		+1 416 475 0525 x 3420
350 Steelcase Road,Markham, Ontario,  CANADA, L3R 1B3