Re: [Groff] grohtml

[Chuck Robey]

Gaius Mulley wrote:
> Chuck Robey <address@hidden> writes:

>> My problem is in trying to use mm macro's list macros, for html output only.
>> I'm currently working around this by using chapters instead, but that's a 
>> very
>> unsatisfactory solution.  The problem is that when you begin the list, there 
>> is
>> no line break going into it.  No line break caused by the macro, but no line
>> break either if I go out of my way to force one via the .br, the .sp, of .SP
>> requests.  Eaxmple is, when I put a centered title on top of the page, the 
>> list
>> below it begins *immediately* at the last character of the centered title.
>>
>> Like I said, if there hasn't been any work on it, I'll have to give it a try
>> myself, and I'm willing to try that, but while I have written successful 
>> macros
>> before, I can't claim to be any genius at it.  I sure would appreciate any
>> comments at all on this, something which might give me a shove in the right
>> direction.

> 
> if you wish to htmlise mm I'd take a look at the file s.tmac and
> search for references to html.  You will find many cases where this
> macro set has to take a different approach from normal typesetting.
> Hopefully the more obvious techniques can be easily replicated into
> the m.tmac.  Also search for the string DEVTAG which places meta
> tags into the groff intermediate code so that post-grohtml can spot
> headings, titles, lists etc.
> 
> Also take a look at devtag.tmac and www.tmac for ideas,

Well, thanks to Gaius, I had a nice list of things to look thru, and I was very
surprised to find, in the file www.tmac, a set of macros that I've never seen
before, that *seem* to be intended to manage lists for html.  The macros include
ULS/ULE for unordered lists, OLS/OLE fo ordered lists, DLS/DLE for definition
lists, and LI as I've come to know it in the mm macros (I *think*) to signal
each new list item.  It *might* be that there's my fix, right there!

However, I want to write stuff that automatically can go to ps, pdf, ascii
(pretty or not so pretty) and html, I don't want to have to have to manage
different document versions.

I'm wondering if anything has ever been written on how to use these things, and
if I need to write some kind of macro package which would adapt the various
kinds of lists I'm likely to use in the mm macros so that they'll show up as
closely as possible for -Thtml.  I haven't any idea who the author of this file
is, so I hope he's reading this email list.  In the meantime, I'm gonna be
reading the code I find, but it would be really really good (both for me and for
others) to find the documentation for these macros.

I know, it might not even be written.  I'd make changes to the html man page, if
I knew where to start, send them here for some committer to review and (perhaps)
stick in the archive.

> 
> regards,
> Gaius