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From: romwa@utgpu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: DWB 1.0 vs DWB 2.0
Message-ID: <1987Oct25.015140.4746@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Date: Sun, 25-Oct-87 01:51:40 EST
Article-I.D.: gpu.1987Oct25.015140.4746
Posted: Sun Oct 25 01:51:40 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 26-Oct-87 05:35:19 EST
References: <705@hsi.UUCP> <230@elan.UUCP>
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Lines: 52
Checksum: 54552
Summary: DWB 2.x, SoftQuad

In article <230@elan.UUCP>, kg@elan.UUCP (Ken Greer) writes:
> in article <705@hsi.UUCP>, stevens@hsi.UUCP (Richard Stevens) says:
> > 
> > We're considering upgrading from Documenter's Workbench Release 1.0
> > to DWB 2.0.  Does anyone know what the differences are ??
> > I've heard a rumor that the ditroff with 2.0 is much (??) faster.
> 
> We ran benchmarks across the board from PCs to MicroVaxs to 
> Mainframes and DWB 2.0 is indeed 2X faster than DWB 1.0!
> 
> It's also got:
> 
>   1. An improved EQN with some new goodies like file include
>      and parameterized macros.
>   2. An improved PIC with programability (for loops, etc.)
>   3. A new program GRAP for plots and graphs (replaces all
>      those weird plotting tools you used to get with UNIX.)
>   4. Tools SUBJ and NDX for creating an index!
>   5. Nroff has ASCII terminal tables -- no more compiling tabxyz.c --
>      you can modify them yourself easily now.
>   6. Troff is mostly unchanged (except for being twice as fast.)
>      The only addition I recall is the \s(nn to set point size to nn.
> 
SoftQuad of Toronto has what I consider to be the best Troff
on the market.  Yes, I have tried many flavors including
Eroff.

This product has all the of the above with some enhancements
which make typesetting a real joy.  First, there is a 'trace'
command, which outputs every macro and troff call as it is
encountered.  Further debugging tools are included.  The
capability to name macros with names up to 14 characters also
makes a potentially cryptic source file quite readable.

There is Postscript, HP, and other laser printer support
available.  I use the program only on Xenix, but is available
on a host of other hosts :-).  Their support has been first
class and their people have gone out of their way to answer
all of my questions.

My feeling is that SoftQuad really understands the whole
process of getting information to print--not just the workings
of troff.

SoftQuad Inc.  (416) 963-8337

Mark T. Dornfeld
Computer Systems Department
Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto

utgpu!rom!mark