Re: [Groff] need advice on choosing a macro

[Jon Snader]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2003 at 01:27:29PM +1100, Zoong PHAM wrote:
> Hi all,
> Can some one advise on which macro a newbie to g/troff should use?
> And is there any comparison between the macros?
> 
> It seems to me the "ms" macro is most widely used and has
> documentation available. I don't mean manpage.
> As a newbie, documentation is important for me.
> TIA,

This is (almost) like asking, ``should I use vi or emacs.''  There
are fierce patrons on all sides.  That said, I use ms and find that
it serves me well for everything from memos to books.  One of the
big advantages of ms, IMHO, is the availability of *lots* of examples.
For example, you can download the source for _Unix Text Processing_
<http://www.alltel.net/~kollar/utp/> and see how ms is used to typeset
a book.  I learned ms by looking at the source for Volume II of the
Version 7 manual <http://plan9.bell-labs.com/7thEdMan/index.html>, and
I recommend that you do that.  Also the original papers describing
troff and ms are available (in source and typeset form).

Jon Snader