Re: [Groff] help-text for beginners?

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi,

> while the resources pointed to by Thomas will get you going, the best
> reference books are out of print. I'm thinking specifically of the
> Sun manuals "Using NROFF and TROFF" and "Formatting Documents".
> 
> In the still-available category, "Unix in a Nutshell", third edition,
> has a full command reference.

Another couple of suggestions.

    Introducing Unix System V.
    Rachel Morgan, Henry McGilton.
    McGraw-Hill.

(There's probably a later version of this old book available now.)
This has several chapters covering troff/nroff, then tbl, pic, eqn, and
then typesetting with troff.

    The Unix Text Processing System.
    Kaare Christian.
    Wiley-Interscience.

A slim book covering vi, nroff/troff, -ms, -mm, eqn, tbl, refer, and
pic.

> delurk: I'm hoping -- in my copious free time -- to assist with
> writing a groff reference book. I typeset dictionaries, and I'm
> looking at groff to overhaul our inhouse typesetting system. You'll
> be pleased/amused to note that many of Collins' large bilingual
> dictionaries are typeset by a troff system already...

That's excellent (that Collins use troff).


Ralph.