Re: [Groff] Tabular html output.

[Bruno Hertz]

On Sat, 2004-05-22 at 00:22, Alejandro Lopez-Valencia wrote:

> Yes... :) The last time I succeeded compiling troffcvt was in a Solaris 
> box, to which I have no access anymore. Cygwin and its imake haven't been 
> as accommodating yet, but it gets better with each release. I've been 
> meaning to try to do it but haven't found the time just yet.

Sigh. Just tried to get the build done on my box, but there actually are
a lot of imake related dependencies, and they do need some work. Kind of
funny that the major obstacle getting this package installed is the
build process.

> I've used it and I had good results; presently, I use groff's backend and 
> recreate the tables with the help of (gasp!) FrontPage, my small collection 
> of web pages is in a server with FP extensions and so I've been using it to 
> manage the "site" and use some of the CSS style sheets provided. I have 
> saved a decent amount of neurons over this.
> 
> You are correct to think that troffcvt is an abandoned project, inasmuch as 
> the Debian package maintainers are the ones that keep the software 
> functional, so at least you know it should compile in Linux. I think you 
> should get the Debian patches (hmm... perhaps even the "orig" package from 
> them in case you don't have all the dependencies).
> 
> Ahh! For a sample of what you can accomplish with troffcvt and a custom 
> macro package, take a look at Larry McVoy's business website 
> http://bitkeeper.com/ (he shows up at the list from time to time; you may 
> recognize the name because he donates the CMS software and primary machine 
> that hosts the development of the Linux kernel).
> 

I do recognize the name, as Linus' CVS -> Bitkeeper switch gave rise to
quite some discussion. Anyway, if Larry's pages are generated by
troffcvt I guess the tool does it's job pretty well.

OK, thanks for the pointer. I hope I can test this soon.

Bruno