Re: [Groff] EQN documentation

[Cedric Sodhi]

Hi, on-list, I don't have to be ashamed of admitting that I thought I
knew EQN but only now I found out that there is L and I in certain macro
packages :)

I'm a little bit wondering about your extensive use of spaces "~" and
"^". If I'm allowed to give you my input on that:

I have never used them, I consider the spacing that EQN gives the
characters based upon their TYPE somewhat reasonable. Besides, I think
the writer(s) of EQN (sorry if I should know who it is) put some thought
into the spacing to make it consistent as it is.

Where I agree that the reader should be told about the spacing thing, I
think it might be better not to start using it all over the place from
the second you mention it, it might give the impression that ~ is a
must-use where actually, I think, it's just your personal taste.

Besides, having a still vivid memory of my first attempts with GROFF
myself, it might be good to keep it as simple as possible for the first
steps. It should suffice if the reader knows somewhere in the back of
his head "if I want spaces, I can explicitly write them" instead of
seing trivial equations like $Z = U over V+A$ being complified as $Z ~~=~~
U over V^^+^^A$ (I'm overstatng it to make my point).

If you allow me, a little OT question:

What do you think about sending emails as optionally

Content-Type: text/groff

to the list, so they are automatically viewed as groff :D ?

(In Mutt I would set up an autoview in mailcap that runs the email
through groff -Dutf8)

best regards,
Cedric

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 07:04:53PM -0000, Ted Harding wrote:
> On 18-Jan-11 21:27:52, Doug McIlroy wrote:
> >>  I have been contemplating for a long time putting together
> >>  a connected account
> > 
> > Cheers! I really miss having concise yet complete online
> > documentation for much Gnu software (pace Texinfo). One shouldn't
> > have to scrounge around obscure history websites to find out
> > how to use it.  (I flip back and forth between my dog-eared
> > 10th-edition Unix manual and man pages for Gnu extensions,
> > and wonder how folks who don't own antique references survive.)
> > 
> > Eric Raymond's Pic reference is a good demonstration that
> > all need not be downhill from Kernighan. Pity the Gnu Pic
> > man page doesn't even mention this good document that comes 
> > with the Groff distribution.  
> > 
> > Ted and Cedric deserve all the encouragement they can get.
> > 
> > Doug
> > (editor of 7th-10th edition manuals)
> 
> Thanks for the encouragement, Doug! It helped to push me over
> the hill of actually getting started. It is in a very early
> stage as yet, and so far is 3 pages into a basic introduction
> (intended for beginners with eqn, though it will assume that
> readers know their way around troff).
> 
> I would welcome comments and suggestions as I proceed, so I
> shall be putting the current draft up on my web-page as it
> progresses. The latest version is at
> 
>   http://www.zen89632.zen.co.uk/Groff/Eqn/eqnguide.pdf
> 
> and it will be updated from time to time. Comments (off-list
> if you prefer) welcome!
> 
> Best wishes to all,
> Ted.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <address@hidden>
> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861
> Date: 20-Jan-11                                       Time: 19:04:49
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