Re: [Groff] *roff for desktop publishing - is it feasible?

[John Gardner]

I like to think of Roff as the assembly language of desktop publishing:
anything is possible, but don't expect it to be easy. =)


On 24 October 2016 at 20:28, Gerard Lally <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Mon, 24 Oct 2016, at 04:58, Clarke Echols wrote:
> > Twenty years ago, I used troff to create camera-ready artwork for a
> > double-sided
> > printed circuit card for a product I was designing the control
> > electronics and
> > bar-graph display for.  The product was awarded "Top 20 new automotive
> > service tools of the year" in Motor Magazine for 1997.  (Alas, the owner
> > of the
> > company stiffed me $30,000 for my work, and another company $70,000.)
> > It was also featured on the PBS TV show "Motorweek".
> >
> > I wrote the macros for the layout, using primarily troff drawing
> > requests.
> >
> > I've used troff and groff to produce finished books (historical fiction
> > and
> > non-fiction), and HP's 3000-page, 3-volume HP-UX Reference (Unix
> > manpages)
> > and everything from business cards to trophy plaques.
> >
> > Sometimes it's more work than one can justify financially, but like most
> > Unix stuff, there's a lot of power there if you have the tenacity and
> > ingenuity
> > to figure out how to do what you need done.
> >
> > But that sample page with all of the artwork is beyond my expertise for
> > now.
>
> Your positive feedback in this and other posts in the archive is very
> welcome, Clarke. Indeed just last week I bought a copy of your vi book;
> I know it's old but it comes highly recommended, and I think a solid
> grounding in the old Unix tools is a great way to prepare for a lifetime
> of document production.
>
> The consensus so far is that a complex page layout is possible but not
> feasible. It's not worth the trouble, but I don't mind that. I really
> just wanted to know whether or not it was possible (should have made
> that clear in the subject header). It means that, if push comes to shove
> somewhere down the line, *roff can handle a reasonably complex layout. I
> don't expect to need it to this extent, but I'm happy to know with some
> "tenacity and ingenuity" I could pull it off if required.
>
>