5 ms·

I use troff (groff) under Linux. The really freaky thing is that you already have groff on your Mac -- it's installed by default.

by dfboyd 6y ago

massysett 6y ago
What macros do you use? I have some simple programs that generate documents to print out, and I use LaTeX and a bunch of packages. It takes hundreds of megabytes of software with all the packages. I've long toyed with using the MOM macros but can't get motivated to rewrite my programs and learn troff. It used to bother me that groff doesn't support Unicode (as far as I can tell) but then realized that all I write is English so why am I fetishizing Unicode? groff will get me any accented character that I would realistically need.
- dfboyd 6y ago
  Just the plain .ms macros. Plus "pic", I like that a lot.
- smartmic 6y ago
  You can have UTF-8 with groff using the preconv [1] tool, just pass the "-k" or "-Kutf8" paramater. It will preprocess your source and replace Unicode symbols with its groff special character form. Of course, the built-in standard fonts do not support many glyphs but it is no big thing to use a more Unicode friendly font like DejaVu Sans or Noto, check [2]. So this is my setup using MOM macros for nice typesetting. But I fully agree on your last point, in the end I seldom need the Unicode universe for most of my documents. [1] https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/preconv.1.html https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/preconv.1.html [2] http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts
  - anthk 6y ago
    https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html
- anthk 6y ago
  Get heirloom-doctools. It supports Unicode just fine. https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html
wyclif 6y ago
groff isn't really comparable, though, because it isn't a word processor but rather a typesetting system.
narwally 6y ago
> The really freaky thing is that you already have groff on your Mac -- it's installed by default. No way, you're right. And of course it has a very detailed and well formatted man page. The one for troff even has tables.
- JdeBP 6y ago
  Little-known fact: groff (more particularly grotty) does colour, albeit that people have secretly turned this off for you. grotty's own man page is in fact in colour. * http://jdebp.uk./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html http://jdebp.uk./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html

I use troff (groff) under Linux. The really freaky thing is that you already have groff on your Mac -- it's installed by default.

by dfboyd 6y ago

I use troff (groff) under Linux. The really freaky thing is that you already have groff on your Mac -- it's installed by default.

massysett 6y ago

What macros do you use? I have some simple programs that generate documents to print out, and I use LaTeX and a bunch of packages. It takes hundreds of megabytes of software with all the packages. I've long toyed with using the MOM macros but can't get motivated to rewrite my programs and learn troff. It used to bother me that groff doesn't support Unicode (as far as I can tell) but then realized that all I write is English so why am I fetishizing Unicode? groff will get me any accented character that I would realistically need.

dfboyd 6y ago
Just the plain .ms macros. Plus "pic", I like that a lot.
smartmic 6y ago
You can have UTF-8 with groff using the preconv [1] tool, just pass the "-k" or "-Kutf8" paramater. It will preprocess your source and replace Unicode symbols with its groff special character form. Of course, the built-in standard fonts do not support many glyphs but it is no big thing to use a more Unicode friendly font like DejaVu Sans or Noto, check [2]. So this is my setup using MOM macros for nice typesetting. But I fully agree on your last point, in the end I seldom need the Unicode universe for most of my documents. [1] https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/preconv.1.html https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/preconv.1.html [2] http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts http://www.schaffter.ca/mom/momdoc/appendices.html#fonts
- anthk 6y ago
  https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html
anthk 6y ago
Get heirloom-doctools. It supports Unicode just fine. https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html https://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html

wyclif 6y ago

groff isn't really comparable, though, because it isn't a word processor but rather a typesetting system.

narwally 6y ago

> The really freaky thing is that you already have groff on your Mac -- it's installed by default. No way, you're right. And of course it has a very detailed and well formatted man page. The one for troff even has tables.

JdeBP 6y ago
Little-known fact: groff (more particularly grotty) does colour, albeit that people have secretly turned this off for you. grotty's own man page is in fact in colour. * http://jdebp.uk./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html http://jdebp.uk./Softwares/nosh/italics-in-manuals.html