[groff] groff and pipes

[Steve Izma]

Something I didn't know about our fellow correspondent Doug
McIlroy:
<https://thenewstack.io/pipe-how-the-system-call-that-ties-unix-together-came-about>

Groff would be terribly less useful if it didn't adhere to this
standard. I've always thought of this in terms of groff being a
filter, but I can't remember where I got the "filter" terminology
from.

And can anyone tell me why Donald Knuth did not design TeX this
way? This has always puzzled me and is the main reason I rarely
use it.

        Thanks,
        -- Steve

-- 
Steve Izma
-
Home: 35 Locust St., Kitchener, Ontario, Canada  N2H 1W6
E-mail: address@hidden  phone: 519-745-1313  cell: 519-998-2684

==
I have always felt the necessity to verify what to many seemed a
simple multiplication table.
        -- Ilya Ehrenburg (Soviet author and critic; he's not
           talking about mathematics)