marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) (02/02/90)
I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? Source, executables, whatever. I looked on simtel's mirror but I never found anything like it. Perhaps if no one can find one for me I'll write one and post it. -- Martin Marshall Warning: this computer frequently posts without my information or consent. Anything you are reading here should be construed as opinions only of my computer's CPU chip, and not of any individual, company, or small furry creature from Alpha Centuri.
ts@uwasa.fi (Timo Salmi LASK) (02/02/90)
In article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) writes: > > I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- >style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? Source, >executables, whatever. I looked on simtel's mirror but I never found >anything like it. Perhaps if no one can find one for me I'll >write one and post it. I do not have information on man type help utility for MsDos, but you (or some other netters) might be interested in (/pc/pd2/) help.zip and help14.zip. Available by anonymous ftp from chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland, as usual. Furthermore, there is a VMS-like help facility at least in Simtel20. I do not recall the name, but it should not be too difficult to find if you first get the Simtel20 file list SIMIBM.IDX. Incidentally, Simtel20 file list is also available from chyde.uwasa.fi as (/pc/pd2/)simibm.zip. ................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi (Moderating at anon. ftp site 128.214.12.3) School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa, SF-65101, Finland Internet: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi Funet: gado::salmi Bitnet: salmi@finfun
rgc@raybed2.UUCP (RICK CARLE) (02/02/90)
In article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) writes: > > I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- > style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? ... I think that, to run u*ix-style man, you'd need nroff, which must be huge. But, there's a public domain program named "help," written by Wolf Paul and improved by John Plocher and most recently by Richard Brittain, that might provide the features you need. It's extendable (although I've never tried it) by adding "helpfile"s via an environment variable. I suppose the helpfiles could be your (pre-formatted) manual pages. I've found "help" quite useful without ever having tried this feature. You can probably get "help" by ftp from the Clarkson bulletin board, grape.ecs.clarkson.edu. It might be archived as "rbhelp." Rick Carle, rgc@raybed2.ray.com
scott@kong.gatech.edu (Scott Coulter) (02/03/90)
In article <1456@raybed2.UUCP> rgc@raybed2.UUCP (RICK CARLE) writes: >In article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) writes: >> >> I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- >> style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? ... > > [response recommending "help" or "rbhelp" for MS-DOS] This is the second response of this form I've seen. Now, I'm not certain of this, but: Do y'all suppose that the original poster has some files which are *already in Unix man(1) format*? I have a few myself that I would like to be able to view/print on my PC. Is this just too obvious, or did I misread the original request? Just throwing in my $.02, Scotters Scott D. Coulter Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 uucp: {most anywhere}!gatech!kong!scott Internet: scott@kong.gatech.edu "...and this is your brain on drugs over-easy with hashbrowns on the side."
richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu (Richard Brittain) (02/04/90)
In article <1456@raybed2.UUCP> rgc@raybed2.UUCP (RICK CARLE) writes: > >I think that, to run u*ix-style man, you'd need nroff, which must be huge. >But, there's a public domain program named "help," written by Wolf Paul >and improved by John Plocher and most recently by Richard Brittain, that >might provide the features you need. It's extendable (although I've >never tried it) by adding "helpfile"s via an environment variable. I'm glad this is proving useful to someone. I'll take this opportunity to mention that I have a new interactive "front end" for it that I have been holding for a while until binaries start flowing again in c.b.i.p. It behaves as before if a specific argument is given, and pops up a selection window for interactive browsing if no argument is given. I designed the interface as a copy of the 4DOS help, but running external program %PAGER% instead of a built in pager. If anyone is interested, the helpfile which comes with 4DOS can be converted to my format pretty easily if you have an editor that is reasonably smart about macros (actually MKS toolkit helpfile format to give credit where due). However, the real impetus for this help program was to consolidate lots of little help files into one (or a small number) and provide an easy way to extract entries and implement an apropos facility. I have been thinking of writing a general "man" lookalike for a while to handle the long online manuals that come with many packages. What I would like to see is: - invoke a command or commands to display a file based on the extension such as .Z - zcat, .NRO - nroff, .DOC - cat - pipe the resulting output through PAGER - search in a directory hierarchy, though not neccessarily as extensive as most unix /usr/man/..... systems Using 4DOS allows me to specify that pipe files be placed in my ram disk, which makes regular use of pipe operations much faster and more feasible than disk-based pipes. I'm currently using a man(1) which I think I got from simtel20, written by David L Rick (1986). It is very useful, and allows searching in a user-specified list of directories, and display via a user specified pager. The entries must all be straight text and end with .DOC however, and cannot be extended to handle compressed or unformatted files. Richard Brittain, School of Elect. Eng., Upson Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 ARPA: richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu UUCP: {uunet,uw-beaver,rochester,cmcl2}!cornell!calvin!richard
richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu (Richard Brittain) (02/04/90)
In article <19482@mephisto.UUCP> scott@kong.UUCP (Scott Coulter) writes: >In article <1456@raybed2.UUCP> rgc@raybed2.UUCP (RICK CARLE) writes: >>In article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) writes: >>> >>> I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- >>> style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? ... >> >> [response recommending "help" or "rbhelp" for MS-DOS] > >This is the second response of this form I've seen. Now, I'm not certain >of this, but: Do y'all suppose that the original poster has some files >which are *already in Unix man(1) format*? I have a few myself that I would >like to be able to view/print on my PC. Is this just too obvious, or did >I misread the original request? > To add a couple more points to my previous posting: - I have investigated several pd *roff clones, and all worked to some extent, but were weak on macros - none actually ran the standard -man macros correctly and so I gave up on the idea of using regular unformatted man pages. I presume the commercial *roff's can do it correctly (for a large price) - I use an MSDOS port of LESS by Mark Nudelman as my PAGER, and this translates nroff-style bold/underline correctly, so I format the pages on the unix box that I use at work, and download the formatted files. Any nroff program used in a man(1) type of utility will need to be able to pipe into something with this capability. An alternative would be more like a troff that output escape sequences for bold/underline etc., for an ansi screen driver. Incidentally, this is an MSDOS port of less v 123 (the latest public release) that I've also had ready for release for a few weeks, waiting for c.b.i.p. It does everything in the unix version, plus a few bells and whistles for ibm pc's. Richard Brittain, School of Elect. Eng., Upson Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 ARPA: richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu UUCP: {uunet,uw-beaver,rochester,cmcl2}!cornell!calvin!richard
jmd@umree.isc.umr.edu (Jim Dumser) (02/05/90)
In article <1990Feb4.012838.26057@calvin.spp.cornell.edu> richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu (Richard Brittain) writes: > - invoke a command or commands to display a file based on the > extension such as .Z - zcat, .NRO - nroff, .DOC - cat Altho this is not the purpose of this post, why not go for more 'Unix-like' and have the extentions be .MAN (.MZN) and .CAT (.CZT) for nroff-able and cat-able (and zcat-able) files? Now for my question: does anyone know of a *completely* compatible 'nroff -man' program? I'm not looking for something that's close, or that provides all the functionality of nroff (but with different syntax); I just want a nroff clone. The reason I ask is that I don't have nroff on my machine (an AT running Microport SV/AT). I know I can buy it (if Microport is still around -- I haven't got an answer on that one yet), but I won't. I'm a student, and instead of spending money trying to get this machine/OS up to par, I'd rather save for a better machine. +-------------------------------------------------------+ | The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, | | but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:7 | |-------------------------------------------------------| | Internet: jmd@ee.umr.edu | M S - D O S . . . | | UUCP: ...uunet!umree!jmd | Just say "NO!" | +-------------------------------------------------------+
marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) (02/05/90)
Let me clarify what I originally intended with my question about man(1). I realize that man files are nroff source. What I was wondering was, is there any program which is a clone of "nroff -man"? I want to be able to format some UN*X-style "man" pages so that I can read them. Amazing how easy it is to produce so much confusion. Warning: this computer frequently posts without my information or consent. Anything you are reading here should be construed as opinions only of my computer's CPU chip, and not of any individual, company, or small furry creature from Alpha Centuri.
nts0699@dsac.dla.mil (Gene McManus) (02/06/90)
From article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, by marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ): > > I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- > style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? Source, > executables, whatever. I looked on simtel's mirror but I never found > anything like it. Perhaps if no one can find one for me I'll > write one and post it. > > -- Martin Marshall How about source for Hypertext (or a work-alike/work-similar?). Anybody got one of these? Gene Gene McManus @ DLA Systems Automation Center, DSAC-X Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 238-9403, Autovon 850- Internet: gmcmanus@dsac.dla.mil (131.78.1.1) UUCP: {uunet!gould,cbosgd!osu-cis}!dsacg1!gmcmanus <<"Dibi bili ve prdele ribi, ne musi vedt na rybnik!" - The Bad Czech>> The views expressed are my own, not those of the Agency, or Dept. of Defense
svirsky@ttidca.TTI.COM (Bill Svirsky) (02/06/90)
In article <1990Feb4.015412.26163@calvin.spp.cornell.edu> richard@calvin.spp.cornell.edu (Richard Brittain) writes: +In article <19482@mephisto.UUCP> scott@kong.UUCP (Scott Coulter) writes: +>In article <1456@raybed2.UUCP> rgc@raybed2.UUCP (RICK CARLE) writes: +>>In article <1990Feb1.175125.922@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) writes: +>>> +>>> I was wondering if there was a program which will operate on UN*X- +>>> style man(1) pages and print them, readably, on the page? ... [stuff deleted] +- I use an MSDOS port of LESS by Mark Nudelman as my PAGER, and this +translates +nroff-style bold/underline correctly, so I format the pages on the unix +box that I use at work, and download the formatted files. ... I do the same thing, but since I'm always short of disk space on my home PC, I take it one step farther and archive all of the documentation. Most archivers have an option to pipe an extracted file to standard out. So I have a man.bat that consists of: @zoo xp \usr\man\man %1.* | less All of my docs are archived in \usr\man\man.zoo. + +Incidentally, this is an MSDOS port of less v 123 (the latest public release) +that I've also had ready for release for a few weeks, waiting for c.b.i.p. +It does everything in the unix version, plus a few bells and whistles for +ibm pc's. Can you post the sources to comp.sources.misc? Thanks. -- Bill Svirsky, Citicorp+TTI, 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405 Work phone: 213-450-9111 x2597 svirsky@ttidca.tti.com | ...!{csun,psivax,rdlvax,retix}!ttidca!svirsky
mitsolid@csd2.NYU.EDU (Thanasis Mitsolides) (02/08/90)
/* csd2:comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d / marshall@alpha.ces.cwru.edu ( ) / 9:51 am Feb 5, 1990 */ > > Amazing how easy it is to produce so much confusion. You ain't seen nothin' yet! Thanasis Relay-Version: version nyu B notes v1.6 9/18/89; site acf4.NYU.EDU From: mainieri@acf2.NYU.EDU (Ronnie Mainieri) Date: 7 Feb 90 11:09 EST Date-Received: 7 Feb 90 11:09 EST Subject: Re: MACSYMA flunks high school math (and REDUCE too) Message-ID: <12040002@acf2.NYU.EDU> Path: acf4!acf2!mainieri Newsgroups: sci.math.symbolic Posting-Version: version nyu B notes v1.6 9/18/89; site acf2.NYU.EDU Organization: New York University References: <167@sc2a.unige.ch> /* acf2:sci.math.symbolic / pfennige@sc2a.unige.ch / 6:04 am Feb 6, 1990 */ In article <2754@umbc3.UMBC.EDU>, rouben@math9.math.umbc.edu (Rouben Rostamian) writes: > There is a quite a serious bug in MACSYMA [UNIX MACSYMA Release 309.2.] [...] > Problem: Integrate the function > 1 > f(x) = sqrt ( x + --- - 2 ) > x > over the interval (0,1). > > Note that f(x) is a well-defined, real-valued, non-negative function on the > half-axis x>0. The integral is easy to compute (by high school methods) and > the correct answer is 4/3. MACSYMA gives the erroneous answer -4/3: A > negative integral for a positive integrand! > > Does anyone else get this too? > Yes, REDUCE 3.3 (Vax/VMS) finds the same negative answer as your version of MACSYMA. In REDUCE the problem comes from a bug with the square root, indeed implicitely SQRT(x^2) simplifies into x. There is a flag ('PRECISE') supposed to prevent such a simplification, i.e. SQRT(x^2) -> ABS(x), but it fails when x is a polynomial. Below is a sample session of REDUCE: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% REDUCE 3.3, 15-Jul-87 ... 1: on precise; % The flag is set on 2: sqrt(x^2); ABS(X) % The answer is correct for real numbers 3: sqrt((1-x)^2); X - 1 % Here is the bug 4: load "algint"; % Module for integrants containing square roots 5: f:=sqrt(x+1/x-2); % The function to integrate X - 1 F := --------- % It simplifies badly SQRT(X) 6: int(f,x); 2*SQRT(X)*(X - 3) ------------------- % The answer is negative for x<3 3 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% I would be curious to know how many current algebra systems simplifies correctly radicals of expressions belonging to real numbers. At least I could experiment that mu-Math on an Apple II did not simplify such things as ((x-1)^2)^(1/2) when the appropriate flag is set. Daniel Pfenniger, Geneva Observatory /* ---------- */