[comp.lang.postscript] iroff

ljb@fai.UUCP (Larry Boggis FAI N.C.) (09/25/90)

We recently purchased a Imagen 6320 Turbo printer (LAN Attached) ... a very
nice printer once it works ...  My question concerns the UNIX Host Software
that accompanied this printer, specifically the iroff and itroff software.
The iroff command calls troff with a '-F' option ... our troff, in all its
glory, does not support a '-F' option.  I, personally, am not that familiar
with 'offs' (nroff, troff, iroff, itroff, etc.) but I have users who swear
by it.  If anyone out there has a similiar setup or knows of what I am
talking about, please send help.  Any information would help.
	
		Thanks.

clewis@ecicrl.UUCP (Chris Lewis) (09/27/90)

In article <2939@fai.UUCP> ljb@fai.fai.com (Larry Boggis FAI N.C.) writes:
>nice printer once it works ...  My question concerns the UNIX Host Software
>that accompanied this printer, specifically the iroff and itroff software.
>The iroff command calls troff with a '-F' option ... our troff, in all its
>glory, does not support a '-F' option.

The -F option tells CAT troff (not ditroff) where to find the width
tables (ft? and ft?? files) for each of the fonts.
It's invoked ala:
	-F<directory>/ftXX
Troff usually has it's default widths in /usr/lib/font; -F/usr/lib/font/ftXX
means the same thing.  Some versions of troff support -F even if their
man pages don't mention it.  If your troff doesn't support -F, it'll
probably support -T (What version of UNIX are you?  Xenix?).  -T<type>
means /usr/lib/font/<type>/ft* files.  This version of troff doesn't
permit you to supply arbitrary path names for the directory of width
tables.  If you must use -T, put the width tables in a subdirectory
of /usr/lib/font, and specify the directory name (not full path) to -T.

Special note: the above applies only to CAT Phototypesetter (aka CAT,
aka "old") troff.  New troff (aka ditroff) uses entirely different
format width tables, and even tho it supports -T, it will probably
not be what you're (or your software's) expecting - width table
format is entirely different between old and new troff.  Actually,
there's also some variation between old troffs too.

If you type:
	troff
CAT Troff will say "typesetter busy" and quit, and new troff will just
emit a character or two and then hang until you hit delete.

If you have old troff, and -T results in some really strange
character spacing, drop me a line and I'll assist.
-- 
Chris Lewis, Phone: (416)-294-9253
UUCP: uunet!utai!lsuc!ecicrl!clewis
Moderator of the Ferret Mailing List (ferret-request@eci386)
Psroff mailing list (psroff-request@eci386)

brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot) (09/30/90)

In article <2939@fai.UUCP> ljb@fai.fai.com (Larry Boggis FAI N.C.) writes:
<We recently purchased a Imagen 6320 Turbo printer (LAN Attached) ... a very
<nice printer once it works ...  My question concerns the UNIX Host Software
<that accompanied this printer, specifically the iroff and itroff software.
<The iroff command calls troff with a '-F' option ... our troff, in all its
<glory, does not support a '-F' option.  I, personally, am not that familiar
<with 'offs' (nroff, troff, iroff, itroff, etc.) but I have users who swear
<by it.  If anyone out there has a similiar setup or knows of what I am
<talking about, please send help.  Any information would help.

To me it looks like the iroff program is looking for the AT&T Documentor's
Workbench 2.0+.  The -F option is used to set the default font family.
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