ferguson@x102c.harris-atd.com (ferguson ct 71078) (02/07/91)
Does anyone know where one might find a public-domain program that will convert troff output to postscript? Otherwise, is there another way to print troff files on a postscript printer? Thanks in advance. Chuck Ferguson Harris Government Information Systems Division (407) 984-6010 MS: W1/7742 PO Box 98000 Melbourne, FL 32902 Internet: ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com Usenet: uunet!x102a!x102c!ferguson
sonny@charybdis.harris-atd.com (Bob Davis) (02/07/91)
In article <5442@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com (ferguson ct 71078) writes: > >Does anyone know where one might find a public-domain program that >will convert troff output to postscript? Otherwise, is there another >way to print troff files on a postscript printer? Thanks in advance. > I grep'd the SIMTEL archive DOS catalog for "PostScript" and for "troff" and came up with nothing for a DOS machine. Since SIMTEL's storehouse contains practically everything in the PD, Freeware, and Shareware areas, this does not bode well for finding it for a DOS machine. If you want this for a UNIX box, you should take a look at what is available in SIMTEL directory: PD2:<UNIX-C> I do not have the archive's catalog for that directory. _____________________________________________________________________________ Bob Davis, UofALA alum \\ INTERNET: sonny@trantor.harris-atd.com | _ _ | Harris Corporation, ESS \\ UUCP: ...!uunet!x102a!trantor!sonny |_| |_| | | Advanced Technology Dept.\\ AETHER: K4VNO |==============|_/\/\/\|_| PO Box 37, MS 3A/1912 \\ VOICE: (407) 727-5886 | I SPEAK ONLY | |_| |_| | Melbourne, FL 32902 \\ FAX: (407) 729-3363 | FOR MYSELF. |_________|
ferguson@x102c.harris-atd.com (ferguson ct 71078) (02/10/91)
Following is a summary of the mail responses I received to my posting asking for a troff to postscript converter. I should have mentioned that I needed it for a SUN Spark SLC. Thanks for all the responses. Chuck ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: gengenba@forwiss.uni-passau.de (Michael Gengenbach) Use groff from the Free Software Foundation's GNU project. It is available free via anonymous ftp from prep.ai.mit.edu. We use it and have no problems. Regards Michael ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tj@mlb.semi.harris.com (Tim Johnson) I have a program of unknown origin called ptroff for sun's that takes roff input and prints postscript. Let me know if you are interested. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: rcw@epg.harris.com (R. Christopher Withers) If you have access to a Sun with either Transcript or FrameMaker loaded you can use ptroff under Transcript/bin or use FrameMaker to import the file using the troff filter. FrameMaker only prints to postscript devices. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: ratazzie@LONEX.RADC.AF.MIL (Edward P. Ratazzi) If you're using a Sun, and you have the TranScript software option, you can use 'ptroff', which is a PostScript-troff program. ptroff supports -me -ms -man, etc. Hope this helps. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Erik Naggum (the Internet Purist) <enag@ifi.uio.no> The GNU project has produced a `groff' which outputs PostScript among other things. To compile it, you need G++, for which you need GCC. This is all freely available, for certain values of "free". The C++ code in groff is reportedly _extremely_ clean and easily portable. The C code in G++ or GCC is, on the other hand, not known for this quality. GCC is supported on a number of platforms, for a suitable value of "supported", which means that there exist a solution such that you will not spend hours and hours trying to do what other people have done before you. You may find a pointer to that solution by contacting the Free Software Foundation, or read some of the gnu.* groups for a few days. I can't help you with that. We get these relevant gnu.* newsgroups here at the University of Oslo: U 2: gnu.g++.announce U 44: gnu.g++.bug U 58: gnu.g++.help U 7: gnu.g++.lib.bug U 0: gnu.gcc.announce U 47: gnu.gcc.bug U 26: gnu.gcc.help none of which I read. They are matched with mailing-lists off some machine at MIT, possibly prep.ai.mit.edu. Check their ftp library. I use groff, and am happy with it. I don't support GNU's philosophy, but they have better products than nearly all vendors. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tcurrey@x102a (currey tom 76327) You might want to check out a program called "psroff". it is on Machine : uunet.uu.net file : pub/psroff* There are several files here. Hope this helps Tom Currey tcurrey@elvis.ess.harris.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Russ Evans <E_GS18@vaxa.nerc-murchison.ac.uk> I assume you're on Unix. (Someone posted a response about MS-DOS, which sounds a little unlikely). The answer depends on whether your troff is the ancient CAT troff or the newer ditroff stuff. Find out by trying to invoke troff. If it comes back with a message about 'Typesetter busy', you've got CAT troff. You want to get a copy of Chris Lewis's excellent psroff, version 2 patchlevel 7. Patchlevel 5 was distributed in comp.sources.unix recently, and can be obtained from uunet. Patch 6 deals with Ultrix/RISC (I helped Chris on that stuff) and patch 7 tidies up a few loose ends. Patchlevel 5 will probably work fine for you. If necessary, you can get the patches from Chris - I don't have his address handy, but it's in the distribution files. If you have ditroff, I'm not the best person to advise you. Russ Evans e_gs18@va.nmh.ac.uk Chuck Ferguson Harris Government Information Systems Division (407) 984-6010 MS: W1/7742 PO Box 98000 Melbourne, FL 32902 Internet: ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com Usenet: uunet!x102a!x102c!ferguson
jdr@sloth.mlb.semi.harris.com (Jim Ray) (02/10/91)
In article <5442@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com (ferguson ct 71078) writes: > >Does anyone know where one might find a public-domain program that >will convert troff output to postscript? Otherwise, is there another >way to print troff files on a postscript printer? Thanks in advance. > >Chuck Ferguson Harris Government Information Systems Division >(407) 984-6010 MS: W1/7742 PO Box 98000 Melbourne, FL 32902 >Internet: ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com >Usenet: uunet!x102a!x102c!ferguson You might try psroff available from uunet.uu.net. Newsgroups: comp.sources.unix Sender: sources Approved: rsalz@uunet.UU.NET Submitted-by: Chris Lewis <eci386!clewis@uunet.uu.net> Posting-number: Volume 20, Issue 33 Archive-name: psroff/part01 Normal UNIX troff only prints its output on WANG C/A/T Phototypesetters. This package contains a generic interface between standard troff and other types of printers. The package has a driver for PostScript printers (Eg: Apple Laserwriters), a partial implementation of a driver for HP Laserjet family printers, and a Ditroff output option. In fact, this package can be used to, in effect, upgrade CAT troff to be ditroff. There are limitations, but you get what you pay for. -- Jim Ray Harris Semiconductor Internet: jdr@semi.harris.com PO Box 883 MS 62B-022 Phone: (407) 729-5059 Melbourne, FL 32901
clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) (02/12/91)
In article <5473@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com (ferguson ct 71078) writes: >From: tcurrey@x102a (currey tom 76327) >You might want to check out a program called "psroff". >it is on Machine : uunet.uu.net > file : pub/psroff* >There are several files here. > Hope this helps > Tom Currey > tcurrey@elvis.ess.harris.com >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Russ Evans <E_GS18@vaxa.nerc-murchison.ac.uk> >I assume you're on Unix. (Someone posted a response about MS-DOS, which >sounds a little unlikely). The answer depends on whether your troff is >the ancient CAT troff or the newer ditroff stuff. Find out by trying to >invoke troff. If it comes back with a message about 'Typesetter busy', >you've got CAT troff. You want to get a copy of Chris Lewis's excellent >psroff, version 2 patchlevel 7. Patchlevel 5 was distributed in >comp.sources.unix recently, and can be obtained from uunet. Patch 6 deals >with Ultrix/RISC (I helped Chris on that stuff) and patch 7 tidies up a few >loose ends. Patchlevel 5 will probably work fine for you. If necessary, >you can get the patches from Chris - I don't have his address handy, but >it's in the distribution files. Thanks Russ ;-) It is important to disambiguate whether you have CAT troff or ditroff before searching for a troff->postscript converter. Russ's remarks are correct. I'd just like to caution everyone that if they wish to obtain psroff, they make sure that they do NOT get the version of psroff under the comp.sources.unix archives on uunet. Tom's information is correct, the latest version is under ~ftp/pub/psroff/*. Most people asking me for help have ended up with psroff 1.0 PL0 from uunet's comp.sources.unix archives. Which has a number of problems, not least being that since comp.sources.unix was defunct during the time, that uunet has none of the patches for it. Psroff 2.0 is FAR superior to 1.0. I've arranged with uunet (thanks to Kyle Jones) to ensure that they have the latest version (psroff 2.0), but for historical reasons, they are keeping the original (very old) version. I've asked them to drop a README into the comp.sources.unix version suggesting that it is the wrong one to get with a pointer to the correct one. If you have ditroff, on the other hand, the simplest solution is to obtain tpscript aka ditroff2ps, which should also be on uunet. tpscript works well, it has a few minor problems that are corrected in psroff - though the released version of psroff does not support ditroff. If you have Pageview, or the xditview or the xtroff utilities from the contrib directory (all under X windows), you can also preview psroff output on your terminal. (Anybody attempting to use pageview should contact me, I have a fix that hasn't been distributed yet) If you have neither version of troff, or need capabilities beyond CAT troff (more than 4 fonts mounted simultaneously, or the extensible character set), you'd probably be best off with groff if you can find disk space, G++ and enough time to kick at it enough. And finally, the development version of psroff 2.0 does currently support ditroff input. This will be made available on the net as psroff 3.0 as soon as it's reasonably well tested and some of the ancilliary issues (width tables, documentation etc) are worked out. Other added features include width tables for LJIII's, an extensible character set for CAT troff, and perhaps even full drawing support for CATs. If people are interested, I'll post the psroff 2.0 "advertising" blurb. -- Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541, Internet: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca UUCP: uunet!mitel!cunews!latour!ecicrl!clewis; Ferret Mailing List: (ferret-request@eci386); Psroff (not Adobe Transcript) enquiries: psroff-request@eci386, current patchlevel is *7*.
clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) (02/12/91)
In article <1991Feb9.201008.3284@mlb.semi.harris.com> jdr@sloth.mlb.semi.harris.com (Jim Ray) writes: |In article <5442@trantor.harris-atd.com> ferguson@x102c.ess.harris.com (ferguson ct 71078) writes: |>Does anyone know where one might find a public-domain program that |>will convert troff output to postscript? Otherwise, is there another |>way to print troff files on a postscript printer? Thanks in advance. |You might try psroff available from uunet.uu.net. By all means, but: |Newsgroups: comp.sources.unix |Sender: sources |Approved: rsalz@uunet.UU.NET |Submitted-by: Chris Lewis <eci386!clewis@uunet.uu.net> |Posting-number: Volume 20, Issue 33 |Archive-name: psroff/part01 PLEASE don't use this version (1.0). The one you want is in ~ftp/pub/psroff/*. The comp.sources.unix one is not only obsolete, but it sucks. (I can say that because I wrote it ;-) Seriously, psroff 2.0 is MUCH better. -- Chris Lewis, Phone: (613) 832-0541, Internet: clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca UUCP: uunet!mitel!cunews!latour!ecicrl!clewis; Ferret Mailing List: (ferret-request@eci386); Psroff (not Adobe Transcript) enquiries: psroff-request@eci386, current patchlevel is *7*.