Re: [Groff] Re: Groff general issues

[Werner LEMBERG]

   I'm afraid I personally share a distaste for [tex]info! However, I
   also agree that man pages are not suitable for conveying large
   amounts of detailed information, such as would be required for
   people learning how to use the groff package.

   My personal preference for groff would be a combination of
   a) man pages for usage summaries (options etc), for troff, pic, eqn etc;
   b) user manuals for instruction in practical usage.

Exactly.  And the default for user manuals of GNU stuff is texinfo.

   I have already made a start on a revision of the "Troff User's
   Manual" otiginally by Ossanna & Kernighan, to take account of the
   changes and extensions in groff.  The classical one for pic is
   quite good, and there is an even better one (if you've read the
   other) for gpic by Eric Raymond.

Wouldn't it be possible to merge your and Trent's stuff into one GNU
troff manual?

   I think there is also a place for man pages for the macro packages too,
   but as summaries only.

Yes, especially about the tman.an macros itself!

   The only proper way to explain the uses of macros is by
   mini-manuals.  I don't think texinfo ould be particularly good for
   this, though I'm willing to be proved wrong.

You are right.  A nice thing would be to have a man2texinfo converter,
making it possible to simply include the various small man pages as
appendices to the groff manual.


    Werner