[comp.sources.bugs] troff2lj problems - really ISC and DWB

vixie@decwrl.dec.com (Paul Vixie) (08/15/88)

In article <1988Aug13.184356.1303@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>,
woods@gpu.utcs.Toronto.EDU (Greg Woods) writes:

(Hey!  Can we stop with the huge Message-ID's?  This is getting silly.)

# I also use nroff, though I haven't quite got my (thank god (or AT&T?),
# new style) nterm entry quite correct for it.  It seems to ignore top
# margin settings unless I reset it first.  [Paul, have you got a working one?]

Nope, but everything I need to print fits in one page.  This is a big loss
in DWB as shipped by ISC/BT/AT&T/SCO/UPORT -- that is, if you are shipping
software to run on a box the size of a PC, why would you ship output drivers
for phototypesetters the size of my van?  It doesn't make sense.  C'mon,
guys, ask yourselves one simple question: "what kind of printer do people
buy when they have a lot of PC-type CPUs around?"  The answer is Postscript
and HP-PDL.

# If someone could send me the source of <<ANY>> ditroff post processor,
# and docs for the printer it supports, I'll get to work on a
# post-processor for the HP Laserjet II [...]

There's something called uunet:~ftp/comp.sources.unix/volume3/lcat*.Z that
may or may not be what you want.  I have the bits but I havn't unpacked them
yet.

# I'm also anxiously awaiting 386/ix 1.0.6, [...] Postscript
# post-processor is rumoured to be in the next release!

I hadn't heard this -- it would be very great indeed if it were true.  Anybody
from ISC want to comment?  Buying a $995 package from Elan or from Image Net-
works is just not an option when you paid less than that for your UNIX(tm)
and not much more for your CPU.  This stuff needs to be bundled.

# [DEC] should really be investigating the [386] competition.

I'm sure there are some 386 PCs somewhere, but I work in a research lab. :-).

# ISC really need to get their own *full* set of manuals printed.
# IBM leads this battle by a light-year!

Agreed.  I was privy to a recent ISC 1.0.5 release, and much to my surprise,
many of the Prentice-Hall paperback SysV.3 books were included with the
software.  Now if they can manage to include the sysadmin ref and guide, and
the full DWB books, and then put them in 3-ring binders, they'll really have
something.  But it's certainly a step in the right direction.
-- 
Paul Vixie
Digital Equipment Corporation	Work:  vixie@dec.com	Play:  paul@vixie.UUCP
Western Research Laboratory	 uunet!decwrl!vixie	   uunet!vixie!paul
Palo Alto, California, USA	  +1 415 853 6600	   +1 415 864 7013