Re: [Groff] Typesetting Software

[Keith Marshall]

On Thursday 04 June 2009 01:36:10 Steve Izma wrote:
> Pdflatex is just a tool for
> going from latex source files to PDF output --a convenience tool,
> like lilypond --pdf; I think someone has crafted a shortform to
> accomplish this with groff as well,

I suspect you may be referring to my `pdfroff' tool here.

> but given the filtering 
> abilities of groff (with PS output) and ps2pdf, this is pretty
> trivial.

While it is true that pdfroff can readily accomplish the trivial 
conversion from groff --> PostScript --> PDF, that is *not* what 
this tool is primarily about.  The real reason for the creation of 
pdfroff was to facilitate the production of PDF documents including 
interactive cross references, as established through the use of the 
`pdfmark' macro set.  The processing needed to implement that extra 
level of PDF functionality is anything but trivial, (and most of it 
occurs as multiple-pass groff processing, long before any PostScript 
is ever generated).  Your throw away "this is pretty trivial" remark 
does rather tend to sell pdfroff (and pdfmark.tmac) short.

-- 

Regards,
Keith.