russ@anduk.UUCP (russ) (06/18/87)
At the last Unix Users' Show, I bought a new book on troff.
``Troff typesetting for Unix[tm] systems'' is probably the best overall
in-depth introduction to using troff or ditroff that I have found, and
will also be useful to more experienced users.
%Author Sandra L. Emerson
%Author Karen Paulsell
%Title Troff typesetting for \*{UNIX} systems
%Inst Prentice Hall
%Date 1987
%Pages 359
%Other Includes Index
%ISBN 0-13-930959 (paperback)
%LConCN 86-12299
%Dewey 686.2'2544
Referred to below as "E & P" after the authors' initials.
Overview:
Unlike many of the other works on the subject (such as Gehani's book),
E & P spends little time on the established "macro packages" such as
the AT&T "-mm" package, but deals instead with the basics.
This approach may sound ``botton-up'', but it seems to work quite well.
The text is readable and clear, and there are relatively few errors.
All of the main issues are at least mentioned, and there are many examples.
After studying the book, a reasonably intelligent reader should be able to
write their own macros to describe formats for multiple columns, footnotes,
indexes, tables of contents, tables and the like.
There's mention of proprietary systems (SoftQuad, Eroff, Wizard, Xroff),
although the info is rather out of date, at any rate for SoftQuad.
Differences between nroff, troff and ditroff are mentioned in most places
where they're relevant, and nroff users will appreciate the note on writing
an nroff driving table.
Overall, I reccommend E & P as both an introduction to troff and as a
reference for more experienced users.
There are only a few caveats:
@ There's not enough mention of typographical issues for my taste.
@ There are a few errors, particularly in the treatment of tabs ("\t" and "\a"
are expanded only in copy mode, so a couple of their examples don't work;
you have to use the ASCII TAB and SOH (^I, ^A) respectively), which are
frustrating to beginners and which add to the number of support calls we
get!
@ There's no treatment of pic, grap or refer. As the book is explicitly
about troff, this isn't really a criticism, just a "beware".
@ Some of the examples use a proportionally spaced font, so it's hard to
work out where to type spaces. This is very minor.
@ The table of requests reproduced from Osanna's manual doesn't include the
``notes'' column that says which requests cause a Break, etc., which slightly
reduce the book's use as a reference manual
And a few specific good points:
@ The 11-page index is helpful and reasonably comprehensive without
irritating jokes about Bo Derek (page 10) or recursion (see recursion).
@ The prose is informal and doesn't read like a lawyer's underlease,
without seeming affected by trying to be friendly.
@ There are a lot of examples, and most of them are quite well-chosen and
do work (but watch out for the tabs, which don't!).
@ Notes on modifying macro packages, such as -ms, are rare in books such as
these, and will no doubt be welcomed.
@ From my point of view, it's useful that the writers were aare of a number
of different versions of troff, as their "code" is portable. All of the
examples which work will run with SoftQuad troff, which means that we can
recommend the book without saying "but watch for...". Other vendors who
haven't introduced incompatibilities could do the same. Reference manuals
are all very well, but this is written for _humans_!
@ The book is reasonably priced -- it isn't cheap at around UK#26, but
you seem to get good value by Prentice Hall standards.
Russell
--
Russell Quin, Unixsys UK Ltd, The Genesis Centre, Birchwood, Warrington WA3 7BH
{utai,ukc!mucs}!anduk!russ [please don't try to use mucs!anduk!utai!...]
+44 925 827834, or 0925 828181 from UK; Telex 946240 CWEASY G Ref. 19021810