bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) (06/02/90)
Well, I have managed to wade my way through most of the "doc" and "man" pages - even those that were not ".fmt". I must say it way quite a chore. Now I have the job of educating users on the proper use of the net. This will not be possible without being able to print the documentation for them. They either can't or won't drop to subshells to "less" the right file - even if they could remember where it is stashed away. What I would like to know is - can I get decent hard copy of this without spending $600-$900 for some nroff/troff software? I find it a little odd that all this lovely software gets transmitted to my system free, but I have to spend hundreds of dollars to print the instructions? I must be missing something. I hope so. Please let me know. -- Bill Irwin - TWG The Westrheim Group - Vancouver, BC, Canada ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ uunet!van-bc!twg!bill (604) 431-9600 (voice) | UNIX Systems Bill.Irwin@twg.bc.ca (604) 431-4629 (fax) | Integration
rmtodd@servalan.uucp (Richard Todd) (06/03/90)
bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes: >What I would like to know is - can I get decent hard copy of this without >spending $600-$900 for some nroff/troff software? I find it a little odd >that all this lovely software gets transmitted to my system free, but I >have to spend hundreds of dollars to print the instructions? >I must be missing something. I hope so. Please let me know. Well, what you're missing is a copy of nroff/troff :-). Seriously, what you've run into is the new trend in the Unix marketing world, called "unbundling" by the vendors or "being nickeled and dimed to death" by the customers. Used to be, when you bought Unix, you paid a rather large lump sum and got the whole ball of wax -- the basic Unix utilities, the C compiler, nroff/troff, networking, the whole bit. Nowadays it's becoming more common to split off the "options" like nroff/troff, networking, etc. as separate packages, which means that your initial cost is lower, but once you discover that you really need those extra goodies after all you get to pay for each of them separately. The upshot of this is that the reason those documents are written in troff form is that, for those of us who bought Unix in one large massive lump, the troff program did come "free"; we've already got it, so why not use it? Of course, this doesn't help you much, though. What you need is some kind soul to print off the documentation for you. Fortunately, someone out there has done just that. Conor Cahill of Virtual Technologies has put together a package of Usenet Documentation. Basically what he's done is gotten together all the documentation of the free software that circulates around Usenet (not just B and C News, but other goodies like Perl, Mush, Elm, rn, most of the GNU programs, and a good deal more), printed them out on a LaserJet, and had lots of copies Xeroxed off. He's now selling them, a two-volume set with about 600 pages/volume, for around $50 per set. (Alas, I've forgotten the exact details of the pricing; try writing uunet!virtech!manuals for the complete info.) Not a bad deal at all, considering that if I had to run all that stuff off on the laserprinter at the university I attend, it'd cost me around $120 (they charge 10 cents/page). Granted, this set is probably overkill if all you're interested in is B or C News, but if you're interested in other programs as well, you might find it worthwhile. And it beats shelling out $600 for a copy of troff :-). -- Richard Todd rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us rmtodd@servalan.uucp Motorola Skates On Intel's Head!
henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) (06/03/90)
In article <161@twg.bc.ca> bill@twg.bc.ca (Bill Irwin) writes: >... Now I have the job of educating users on the proper use of the >net. This will not be possible without being able to print the >documentation for them... can I get decent hard copy of this without >spending $600-$900 for some nroff/troff software? ... From the sounds of it, you've got B News, but we've seen the same problem with C News on System V machines. We have a slightly odd solution to it in the works; stay tuned. (Don't expect anything for 2-3 weeks, though, as we're both going to be away for Usenix.) -- As a user I'll take speed over| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology features any day. -A.Tanenbaum| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu