Re: <OK> Re: [Groff] Escape characters in -man output

[Werner LEMBERG]

> To my mind, it would not be unreasonable to say that a new groff
> architecture, "giroff" (for Gnu International Run OFF), that takes
> input that looks very much like groff but doesn't necessarily use
> all the pre-and post-filters of groff COULD be a good way to go.

This is highly unlikely to happen.

> But I think it is too early to make that decision.  However, the
> unspoken idea that the same architecture has to work under a very
> different world view is also premature.

UTF-8 has very nice features; the most important is that it normally
can be used by UNIX filters which aren't UTF-8 aware but 8bit clean.
Unfortunately, this isn't the case with groff because it is *not* 8bit
clean -- this is a limitation of the GNU troff implementation and not
a limitation of the troff design itself.

> Bottom line suggestion: Try to come up with a statement of the
> problems and the desirable characteristics of the solutions.  Then
> look to see what needs to be done to achieve those goals.

Fortunately, we already know very precisely what to do.  The only
thing which is lacking is time (and energy).


    Werner