[comp.unix.i386] nroff

joe@astph.UUCP (Joe Broniszewski) (05/31/90)

From time to time I get sources from the net and compile them on
my machine.  Many times these sources send documemtation in
a form that nroff can understand.  I try to print out these
documents with the switchs -man, -ms, etc. that came with
nroff, but they don't work on all documents.  I don't understand
nroff well enough to figure out a solution to this problem.  Is
there a standard filter to pass some of these manual pages through?
Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.



					Joe Broniszewski

brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot) (06/01/90)

In article <14@astph.UUCP> joe@astph.UUCP (Joe Broniszewski) writes:
<From time to time I get sources from the net and compile them on
<my machine.  Many times these sources send documemtation in
<a form that nroff can understand.  I try to print out these
<documents with the switchs -man, -ms, etc. that came with
<nroff, but they don't work on all documents.  I don't understand
<nroff well enough to figure out a solution to this problem.  Is
<there a standard filter to pass some of these manual pages through?
<Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

Many documents do not translate well under nroff.  They really want to
be printed like books, using troff (or a form there-of).  Using troff
will allow for typeset quality documents.
-- 
      harvard\     att!nicmad\        spool.cs.wisc.edu!astroatc!vidiot!brown
Vidiot  ucbvax!uwvax..........!astroatc!vidiot!brown
      rutgers/  decvax!nicmad/ INET:<@spool.cs.wisc.edu,@astroatc:brown@vidiot>

soc@dr.uucp (Steinar O. Cook) (06/02/90)

In article <14@astph.UUCP> joe@astph.UUCP (Joe Broniszewski) writes:
>From time to time I get sources from the net and compile them on
>my machine.  Many times these sources send documemtation in
>a form that nroff can understand.  I try to print out these
>documents with the switchs -man, -ms, etc. that came with
>nroff, but they don't work on all documents.  I don't understand
>nroff well enough to figure out a solution to this problem.  Is
>there a standard filter to pass some of these manual pages through?
>Any help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

It might be that the documents have been written using tbl, pic or grap
macros. If the documents contains pic og grap macros, there is not very much 
you can do about it if you only have nroff. If the documents contains tbl 
macros (.TS/.TE), you could try formatting like this:

	tbl -TX document | nroff -mm/-me/-ms -Tyourterm