Re: [Groff] Replacing groff with troff?

[Charlie Kester]

On Tue 01 Jun 2010 at 12:48:45 PDT Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Hi Charlie,
>
> > All they're doing is putting mdocml in base to handle manpages.
>
>    http://mdocml.bsd.lv/
>
>    DESCRIPTION
>
>    mdocml is a suite of tools compiling "-mdoc", the roff macro package
>    of choice for BSD manual pages, and "-man", the predominant
>    historical package for UNIX manuals. The mission of mdocml is to
>    deprecate groff, the GNU roff implementation, for displaying -mdoc
>    pages whilst providing token support for -man.
>
>    Why? groff amounts to over 5 MB of source code, most of which is C++
>    and all of which is GPL. It runs slowly, produces uncertain output,
>    and varies in operation from system to system. mdocml strives to fix
>    this (respectively small, C, ISC-licensed, fast and regular).
>
> "uncertain output"?

You'd have to ask the author of mdocml what he means by that.  I'd be
interested in hearing the answer too.

As I said, I think groff's GPLv3 license is the main concern with having
it in base, although the performance arguments are carrying some weight
with some people.  

I didn't join this thread to make (or defend) those arguments, only to
try to keep the record straight about what FreeBSD is and is not doing.

Disclaimer: I'm just an interested user, not a FreeBSD developer or spokesman.  
But I'm also an interested user of groff and all other roff related tools!