npn@cbnewsl.att.com (nils-peter.nelson) (11/10/90)
The pm page markup program (for automatic widow/orphan suppression, column balancing, general esthetics in troff documents) was available in time for DWB 3.1 but we didn't include it because it's written in C++, which was not sufficiently supported at the time. Since we distribute DWB as source I would like to hear the opinion of potential customers. This is probably of general-enough interest for public replies. So, question is: Would use of C++ in DWB (or any other source-distributed software) be: - an insurmountable obstacle - a nuisance - no difference - an asset For reference, Brian Kernighan's latest books (eg., 2nd Edition of "The C Programming Language") were published using troff, eqn, pic, tbl and pm-- and no manual cut-and-paste.
rstevens@noao.edu (Rich Stevens) (11/10/90)
Note that the entire groff package (gpic, geqn, gtroff, etc.) is written in C++. This was not unsurmountable when I brought groff up, since I could easily use GNU's g++. But having to bring up g++ (and the g++ library, and gcc [since g++ uses parts of gcc]) did add several hours to the task. One other comment is that people paying $20k or $30k for the DWB source can probably afford their vendor's C++. But, I'd guess firms that port DWB to lots of platforms would have to pay for a lot of C++ compilers. Personally, I think we'll start seeing more and more software written in C++ (which is why I didn't mind putting the effort into bringing g++ up). Rich Stevens