RE: [Groff] Training site.

[Eddie Maddox]

On Sun, 17 Oct 1999 address@hidden wrote:

> The whole issue of groff documentation and support is in a very
> primitive state, and has been since groff first came out. Basically,
> if you already knew one of the later UNIX troffs, you could work
> out most of groff from its own very minimal documentation, which
> chiefly covered differences from UNIX troff.

I used nroff in the UNIX Release 5, 6, 7 days, ~1978 - 80, before System
V.  I've used groff a little bit the last few years. I agree. 

> self-contained documentation suite for groff. This is not a small task,
...> should not expect to see the results soon.

> Groff is purely a document formatting package. A new extension

> But groff is in no way a programming language comparable with m4
> or python, and would not of itself support web-page interactivity in a
> more general sense.

...> documentation project" had achieved something substantial.

Debian has a Docbook package, and a HOWTO for it now. It produces, if you
wish, HTML and other assorted products.

I've found some useful m4 macro packages for HTML, a brand new tutorial,
etc. Adding macros for Docbook, XML, etc. should be straight forward.

Since I am catering to users who have expression of ideas, not
experimentation, in mind, I am looking for ready-to-use, easy-to-learn,
functional-enough utilities. 

I have decided, given several related factors, that Docbook, and Debian's
support suite for it, is the way to go. M4 may play a part in that. Groff
may, too. A growth path beyond Docbook would certainly be XML/Python. 

For users with very basic needs, or just beginning to get their feet wet
in the web, an all-in-one basic utility like HTML/Groff, may be useful. 
After all, the desktop PC never replaced the hand held calculator. 

So, I would like to provide a mention, and links, to your sites for those
who wish to try groff or help out. OK? I'll want to try your new release
myself, too, of course. 

Otherwise I'll concentrate on Docbook/Debian.

Thanks, Ted.
------------------
Eddie Maddox
address@hidden