Re: [Groff] groff_ms.man

[Tadziu Hoffmann]

Hehe, couldn't pass this one up.

\begin{flame}

> > > Part of my problem with all things TeX is that they tend
> > > to insist on a certain format -- Harvard numbering, body
> > > text lines up with headings -- that went out of style 15
> > > years ago outside of academia.
> 
> > > One can say that groff shares the same problem, but I'm
> > > slowly working on a macro package to take care of it.

Uh-Oh.  You're using two different standards in your argument,
no?  You only complain about the outdated look of TeX documents.
Do you simply whine about the outdated look of -ms?  No.  You
sit down and make a great effort of writing a new macro package.
What's keeping you from expending the same effort for a TeX
macro package?  TeX does not force a particular look, as neither
does groff.  And writing macros for TeX isn't harder than
writing macros for groff.

> If I have to deal with LaTeX at all, I fire up LyX. Now
> there's a program that gets out of your way & lets you
> *write*.

I simply don't get it.  How does LaTeX not let you write?  I use
both LaTeX and groff and see no fundamental differences.  The
problem with using LyX is that you lose all the features a good
text editor gives you.  Give LaTeX some slack.  You can at least
read and understand what you've written long time after.  Groff
is more like a write-only language.  (Like PostScript -- another
great language, but really hard to read.)

\end{flame}

No hard feelings intended, but your argument really
doesn't do justice to such a fine program as TeX.


Cheers,
Tadziu