Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!sunybcs!colonel
From: colonel@sunybcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Why troff?
Message-ID: <2193@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 2-Feb-87 22:39:33 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.2193
Posted: Mon Feb  2 22:39:33 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Feb-87 22:44:46 EST
References: <1556@trwrb.UUCP> <7593@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Jack of Clubs Precision Instruments
Lines: 19
Keywords: TeX, troff

> The other side of this is people who can't stand TeX because it insists
> on being interactive, blithering at them given the slightest excuse.
> Whether one prefers this to troff's silence and relatively poor error
> diagnosis is very much a matter of taste.

I'm accustomed to troff's barfocity by now.  But there's one check
that could be implemented easily and would save a lot of distress.

Strings and macros share a name space, right?  Well, if you define
xy as a string and then try to use it as a macro, troff ought to know
better!  Hack hack!

--
Legalize insanity!
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
CS: colonel@buffalo-cs
BI: colonel@sunybcs, csdsiche@ubvms