Re: [Groff] troff syntax and useability

[Larry Kollar]

Peter Schaffter wrote:

> ... That groff was _capable_ of meeting my typesetting
> requirements -- and very powerfully at that -- did not mean it behaved
> in a typographically sensible manner.  However, having experience with
> old-style computer phototypesetting, circa 1980, it wasn't much of a
> leap to come up with the idea of recreating that experience via a macro
> set, with groff as the underlying typesetting engine.

Aha. You know, certainly, that troff was written to drive a 1970s
vintage phototypesetter. Some of troff's funky features were a
direct result of that. For example, the C/A/T supported type sizes
from 4 to 39 points, so "\s41" meant to switch to 4-point type and
output the numeral 1... but "\s24" switched to 24-point type.


> One last point.  Back in the 90s, working for the shop in Montréal I
> refered to above, we experimented with a complete typesetting system
> for Macs called "Quoin."

Today's Macs come out of the box with groff already installed. :-)

        Larry