[comp.windows.ms] WfW to Troff conversion?

slewis@cbnewsm.att.com (scott.b.lewis) (03/12/91)

Netters,

Might an animal exist that can convert WfW (or supported
other formats) to troff?  Actually, something that just
did the basics would be fine (e.g. simple char formatting,
paragraph placement, etc), but if there is something that
was more sophisticated (e.g. tbl output?) that would be
great.  Shareware would be nice, but commercial 
recommendations are also welcome. 

Please respond to slewis@hound.att.com.

Thanksinadvance,

Scott

bin@primate.wisc.edu (Brain in Neutral) (03/12/91)

From article <1991Mar11.171938.22092@cbnewsm.att.com>, by slewis@cbnewsm.att.com (scott.b.lewis):
> Netters,
> 
> Might an animal exist that can convert WfW (or supported
> other formats) to troff?  Actually, something that just
> did the basics would be fine (e.g. simple char formatting,
> paragraph placement, etc), but if there is something that
> was more sophisticated (e.g. tbl output?) that would be
> great.  Shareware would be nice, but commercial 
> recommendations are also welcome. 

I announced this a short while ago... 

Distribution 1.05 of an RTF file reading tool is available for anonymous
FTP on host indri.primate.wisc.edu (address 128.104.230.11) in the
directory ~ftp/pub/RTF.  The distribution is in the form of a shell archive.

The most notable difference from distribution 1.04 is that the RTF reader
recognizes about twice as many control symbols as before (about 300 now).
Some bugs were also fixed to amend some truly amazing braindamage, and the
the translaters were updated to take advantage of some new capabilities.

The RTF-to-troff translator has undergone extensive revision, although it
probably should not be hard to find RTF files that make it die a horrible
death.

An RTF specification document is also available on indri.  This is a much
more complete document than the one currently available on sumex.  It is
available as a Macintosh Microsoft Word document in stuffed binhex format,
and in RTF format.
------------

Etc.

Please note that this version has no support for tbl output (unlike the
one I'm working on now) and more importantly, that all the files I used
to test it were generated with Word for Macintosh.  I now have access
to WfW and know of some differences in the RTF generated by the two programs.
Style handling will choke on WfW files, for one thing.

If any of you WfW'ers would like to try this out *and send me files that
make it die the aforementioned horrible death*, I'd appreciate it.

Yours,
Paul DuBois
dubois@primate.wisc.edu