Re: Can I interview you about groff?

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Jim,

At 2023-07-24T15:53:13-0500, Jim Hall wrote:
> Hello, groff developers!

Hello, FreeDOS founder... :)

> I am the senior editor for Technically We Write, a website about
> technical writing, editing, document markup (including groff), .. and
> everything else you can call "technical communication." I launched the
> website in May this year as a way to support the technical
> communication community. We are at <https://technicallywewrite.com/>

I'm Branden, and you may know me from a handful of commits in groff's
commit history.  </Troy McClure>

> I have a longtime interest in nroff and troff (and specifically groff)
> since I was an undergrad using the campus Unix lab in the early 1990s.
> I still use groff (with -me) for a few things today. That's why I
> wrote several articles for the website about groff.

I see that!  And I thank you for getting Brian Kernighan on the record
about using groff specifically.

https://technicallywewrite.com/2023/06/01/groff

Some months ago, when I suggested that this may be the case--I can't
remember if it was here or on the TUHS list--my conjecture was met with
some skepticism.  Some people seemed to feel that a programmer of his
caliber would continue to maintain a personal version of troff rather
than using GNU's.  And that is certainly possible.  But it seems
Kernighan is one of our users after all, and I hope he won't hesitate to
file bug reports if he encounters any issues.

> I would love to interview someone about GNU groff. Can I email you a
> list of 6 or 7 questions about groff - including how it started,
> compatibility with nroff/troff, how it's used, tools, and future
> plans? I think this would be a great article for the website.

I'd be happy to (attempt to) answer any questions you have about groff.
We recently had our first release in four and half years so such a piece
would be timely for us as well.

https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-gnu/2023-07/msg00001.html

Regards,
Branden

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