Re: [Groff] grohtml

[Gaius Mulley]

Chuck Robey <address@hidden> writes:

> I'm a very long-term user of groff (with the mm macros), I have a problem with
> my new attempts to get html output, and I'd appreciate either knowing if my
> problem has already  been attended to, or if I need to try to do it myself, 
> then
> maybe a pointer telling me where the files that are most likely to hold the
> problem are.
>
> Please note, all of my comments below are about use of grohtml and the mm
> macros.  If I missed saying this somewhere, believe it, I love the mm macros,
> and can use them just fine in ps or pdf or ascii.  I might mention that I'm
> hugely happy with groff over troff, also (that shouldn't surprise you any).
>
> My problem is in trying to use mm macro's list macros, for html output only.
> I'm currently working around this by using chapters instead, but that's a very
> unsatisfactory solution.  The problem is that when you begin the list, there 
> is
> no line break going into it.  No line break caused by the macro, but no line
> break either if I go out of my way to force one via the .br, the .sp, of .SP
> requests.  Eaxmple is, when I put a centered title on top of the page, the 
> list
> below it begins *immediately* at the last character of the centered title.
>
> Like I said, if there hasn't been any work on it, I'll have to give it a try
> myself, and I'm willing to try that, but while I have written successful 
> macros
> before, I can't claim to be any genius at it.  I sure would appreciate any
> comments at all on this, something which might give me a shove in the right
> direction.
>
> Oh, btw, please don't bother telling me to try other macros sets (like ms)
> because I like mm, it's got features I don't care to do without, and I'm being
> stubborn (probably).

Hi Chuck,

if you wish to htmlise mm I'd take a look at the file s.tmac and
search for references to html.  You will find many cases where this
macro set has to take a different approach from normal typesetting.
Hopefully the more obvious techniques can be easily replicated into
the m.tmac.  Also search for the string DEVTAG which places meta
tags into the groff intermediate code so that post-grohtml can spot
headings, titles, lists etc.

Also take a look at devtag.tmac and www.tmac for ideas,

regards,
Gaius