Re: [Groff] Choosing a portability target

[Eric S. Raymond]

Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden>:
> > Target 2: man2html compatibility
> 
> This sounds reasonable.  However, in case there are really stupid and
> brainless issues in man2html, let's not uglify the groff man macros
> just to cope with them.  Instead, force the man2html maintainers to
> fix them!  Why should I and you do the work while those guys enjoy
> their lives without reason?
> 
> > Target 3: manServer compatibility
> > Target 4: troff-classic compatibility
> 
> No.  This is like having a car and walking by foot just to not be
> ahead.

Fine.  This is pretty much the target I've been aiming at anyway --
manServer compatibility is probably impossible simply because it
doesn't handle .if, and the patches to enforce troff-classic compatibility
would be possible but very intrusive.

I'm also OK with the idea of shipping fix patches for dumb things to
the man2html maintainers.  But I'm not sure how many variants of that
code are out there.  I know of two; the original code by Richard
Verhoeven in Andriew Brouwer's man distribution, and te adaptation
in the KDE help browser.  There may be others.
-- 
                <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/";>Eric S. Raymond</a>