Re: [Groff] address@hidden: Re: Back to the future]

[Eric S. Raymond]

Peter Schaffter <address@hidden>:
> As for groff itself, and good typography, I care about them
> passionately, for reasons it would take a book to explain.  We're
> all the same, I think.  Together--list subscribers and those
> involved in active development--let's show a certain semantic nut
> he's wrong about the future of the printed page. :)

That makes a good rallying cry, but...

...I actually do care about good typography. I just don't find it very
relevant to the technical-documentation inadequacies I want to address.

Here's a f'rinstance.

I would dearly love to own a printed edition of Sir Richard Francis 
Burton's translation of the Arabian Nights with its major defect - 
absence of any paragraphing - fixed.

And on *that*, by Goddess, I'd value fine typography.  And acid-free
archival paper.  And a leather binding. The book as craft object and
sensual experience.

There's still a place for that; it just doesn't happen to be 
anywhere near man pages.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>