RE: Re: [Groff] Groff Textbook

[Borawski, Thomas]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden [mailto:address@hidden]
> Sent: None
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Groff digest, Vol 1 #597 - 16 msgs
>
>
> Message: 11
> Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 08:14:23 -0700
> From: Clarke Echols <address@hidden>
> To: Tadziu Hoffmann <address@hidden>
> CC: address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [Groff] Groff Textbook
>
> Tadziu Hoffmann wrote:
> >
> > HP used to have a very good (in my opinion) book on [nt]roff
> > and related utilities, the "Text Formatting User's Guide".

The HP book is OK.  We have it here at work with our HP-UX system.  I felt the
original Bell Labs documents covered the topic just as well.  My desire for a
text book is not a matter of "getting the information" but in having it in a convenient,
hardbound package.

Currently, I have two large 3-ring binders with all the Bell Labs Troff printouts.  I use
the M. E. Lesk 1978 quick guide as a "cheat sheet" (4 pages) for use in the field. I found
all these documents on Lucent's web site.  All were in pdf format.

I also think a textbook is a great way of supporting the project both financially (if FSF publishes it)
and in bringing in more users.

Three-ring binders are a pain.  A book is better.

If HP has stopped printing their manuals, they would make many friends if they released
them in PDF format as Lucent has done.  I have a feeling that the papers by Lesk, Ossanna,
Kernighan, Cherry will be useful for many years to come.

> >
> > Clarke: What's the copyright status on this?
>
> HP holds a copyright on all of their manuals.  However, the manual
> in question (much of which I wrote) is no longer listed in the manual
> page "manuals(5)", so I assume that they have eliminated it from the
> market in their inimitable cost-savings campaign.  Given that, they
> might be willing to give an authorization to use it by GNU, but I
> don't know.
>
> I suggest a note to address@hidden .  I've been gone for over
> two years now, and with downsizing and layoffs, etc., I have no clue
> as to whom one might contact directly.  My principal reason
> for leaving
> was dissatisfaction with how certain individuals were running things
> -- the same individuals who made the decisions about what to drop from
> the list of manuals, and most of these individuals were not experts on
> the subjects being dropped.
>
> Clarke
>
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>
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