[comp.sys.ibm.pc] PC word processor to troff translation

markxx@garnet.berkeley.edu (08/03/88)

A question for netland:    

	I am working for a journal that occasionally gets its
submissions on disk, often WordPerfect.   However, we typeset 
our journal using troff.  I am trying to discover if there is an
easier way of making the transition between the two progams than:

a) stripping WordPerfect to ASCII and then manually reinserting the
appropriate troff codes, or

b) writing a huge macro in WordPerfect that will strip its internal
codes and insert troff's.

	While option "b" will take more work initially, in the long
run it is of course faster than "a."  Before I start the process of
creating the macro (under WordPerfect 5.0) I wonder if:

1) has this already been done?  If so, where can I get a copy?

2) Does any commercial program do this?  I have seen programs,
such as "Software Bridge," that translate between DOS wordprocessors,
but I wonder if there is one out there that does this for WordPerfect
or Word, or one of the popular DOS wordprocessors (so that I could
translate to that format) and then to troff? 

	By the way, WordPerfect will convert files to DCA (used by IBM 
mainframes), Navy DIF, WordStar, and MultiMate. [hum, they left out
Word...:-)]  so if it is possible to translate from one of these if 
would be easier.

	Please respond by E-mail if possible, and thanks in advance. 
 

	-Mark Ritchie  (markxx@garnet.Berkeley.EDU) 

tvf@cci632.UUCP (Tom Frauenhofer) (08/04/88)

You should be able to use the WordPerfect printer program to write a printer
driver that generates [t/n]roff commands (I've done it for similar *roff-style
programs).  That should do the trick.

Tom Frauenhofer	tvf@ccird3.UUCP (or ...!rochester!cci632!ccird3!tvf)
				(or ...!rochester!kodak!bmt!tvf)
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