Re: [Groff] Does groff match my needs?

[Clarke Echols]

I started using troff in 1985.  I've been using groff since 2009.

I used troff to produce the HP-UX Reference (Unix man pages manual
for HP for most of five years (3000 pages in 3 volumes at HP-UX 9.0).
I also used it (with my own macros to lay out and create the artwork
for printed circuits for use in a commercial electronic controller.
I've used it for everything from business cards to single-page letters
to 23-page white papers to 300 page novels and non-fiction books.

I've used it to produce white papers for clients and user manuals
for power supplies used in NATO installations and US Army equipment.

I write my own macros for everything I do.  It's an incredible tool
if you take the time and trouble to get good at it.

I wrote a user manual for vi in 1987 which HP converted into "The
Ultimate Guide to the Vi and Ex Text Editors" which is still
selling on Amazon today, and is considered by many to be the
best general user manual for vi ever written.  Troff was not used
in creating that book, but I wrote it using vi, which has been
improved to form vim.

I still use vim to create websites, write code in CSS and HTML.
I've no been using vi or vim for 40 years.  One of my daughters
is a corporate-database administrator for a very large insurance
company, working on mission-critical systems at corporate
headquarters.  She uses vi all the time, and relies on my book
as her reference.

Those two tools make a powerful pair if you use them effectively.
I've been a senior technical writer since 1980, and an engineer
since 1972.

Clarke


On 11/11/2015 09:50 AM, Volker Wolfram wrote:
> On 11/11/15 17:32, Joh-Tob Schäg wrote:
> > Dear groff-mailing list,
> >
> > i seached for an alternative to latex and found groff. Sadly i found
> > no IRC
> > or something where i could ask directly.
> > But before i invest time in groff or some macro system, i wanted to
> > know if
> > it fits my needs.
> > These are:
> > -support for ä,ü,ö,Ä...
> > -supporting word division for german (possible compound) words
> > -supports A4 paper format
> > -export as pdf
> >
> > Are these features supported?
> > Sincerly,
> > address@hidden
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm the greatest fan of TROFF since I've switched from LaTeX to it.
>
> Started with writing letters, then technical descriptions, drawings in
> 3D (own macros), and finished with a poem book. All in german language.
>
> Writing equations, drawing pics and making tables is very easy.
>
> And much more...
>
> And all of your questioned features are supported.
>
> I'm using a combination of GROFF, hunspell, make, vim and mupdf.
>
> If you look for easy making posters, id card and other stuff you can try
> GMT (generic mapping tools). pstext and psimage are good friends too.
>
> Volker