Re: [Groff] Cross references

[Keith MARSHALL]

Hi Amber,

I'm copying this reply to the groff mailing list, as that will
provide access to much more collected wisdom on the subject.

On 19-Sept-2005, Amber Hassan wrote:
> I am thankful for the pdfmark guidence[sic].  Could you
> please guide me to a similar thing for dvi and html files i.e.
> hot cross references and hyperlinks inside the documents.

Read the `groff_www' manpage, for guidance on HTML.  I don't
know how to achieve this effect with DVI, or if it is even
possible -- keep the address@hidden' list copied, as someone
else may be better able to advise.

> Of the possible reasons are:
> 1. dvi and htmlfiles have very small sizes

Not often a consideration in these days of cheap mass storage,
and broadband Internet access, but an admirable objective
nonetheless.

> 2. latex/tex provides this capability, I wished groff did so
> as well.

I don't know much about LaTEX or TEX, so can't really offer
any advice.  I understood that these were tools primarily for
producing printed documents;  how do you generate a `hot link'
from a printed page?  Certainly, I believe you can produce PDF
or HTML output from these tools, but these formats are also
well supported by groff.

If you are merely looking for techniques for generating page
references in a printed document, then this has been discussed
in the past.  Search the groff mailing list archives -- the
techniques employed in pdfmark.tmac are a distillation of the
wisdom to be found there.

Best regards,
Keith.