Re: [Groff] problem with current snapshot

[Larry Kollar]

Joerg van den Hoff wrote:

> I've tried to test the current snapshot (under OSX 10.4.8.). I encountered the
> following problems:
> 
> 1.)
> contrary to earlier versions, this one did initially _not_ compile due to a 
> probably 
> simple problem: 
> utilities such as `xpmtoppm' which are used during documentation
> generation are not present under OSX und not even available via the package
> systems (fink, port). I did not try to get those otherwise (where could I?), 
> but 
> edited the corresponding makefile, susbtituting the affected lines by using
> `convert' (from ImageMagick) to achieve the apparently intended conversions.
> I presume fiddling with the affected two lines does not mess up the further
> compile/install run?

You need the NetPBM tools (netpbm.sf.net). Using ImageMagick should
work equally well.

> question: could the makefile be modified so that it checks for availability of
> the conversion tools and maybe even tries whether it can use `convert' 
> instead?

If I knew how to fool with autoconf, I would patch in a couple of package
options:

--with-netpbm (default: =yes)
--with-imagemagick (default: =no)
--with-sips (default =no)

Sips is an OSX utility that performs many of the same functions as
NetPBM or ImageMagick. You can convert, for example, JPEG to PNG
using:

  sips -s format png foo.jpg --out foo.png

It supports: jpeg, tiff, png, gif, jp2 (JPEG2000 I think), pict, bmp,
qtif (not sure), psd (Photoshop), sgi, and tga.

> 2.)
> after solving(?) point 1 above compile went through. the first test of 
> the installed snapshot now yields more problems:
> 
> I get _lots_ of errors: " `\E' is not allowed in an escape name"
> 
> and the formatting yields buggy output (with -ms) ...
>
> here the switch to italic for a single word (image) fails (italic is activated
> and maintained for the rest of the paragraph) and some register is not 
> expanded
> or macro not recognized, it seems ([par*prev-font]), maybe related to the
> error message given above?

Strange. I didn't have that problem with the CVS from a couple of
months ago. Are you sure you're invoking the just-compiled groff?
Try copying your test file into the source directory and use "./test-groff"
with the normal command-line options.

-- Larry