Re: [groff] groff as the basis for comprehensive documentation?

[John Gardner]

>
> *Hmm, that must be new in CSS (i stopped at CSS2).*


Do you mean attribute selectors?

these[ones-like$="this?"] { }


They've actually enjoyed universal support for quite some time now... =)
They were included in the first revision of the CSS2 specification, IIRC.

*But that has nothing to do with roff, let alone groff, right?*


It does, but not directly. What I intend to write is a
*post-processor. *Something
which will accept the following:

$ troff -Tutf8 /path/to/manpage.1 -Z | webroff

$ troff -T pdf /some/book.me -Z | w3conv


I haven't decided on what to name the actual executable (you see two
different names above). You'll also notice I'm piping output intended for
-Tutf8 and -T pdf into a foreign postprocessor. That's the point where I
divert the stream of intermediate output commands (which I've nicknamed
"DITROFF DATA" for slang, because damn that mouthful).

Unfortunately, this means it won't support mandoc because it lacks a
similar intermedia output language  (I *did* email Ingo some time ago about
a stable AST format I could work with... he probably thought I was nuts
after I said I was interested in writing my own HTML processor

*I referred to for example mdoc(7)'s .Sx command.*


Yes, that will be possible in the sense of a conventional HTML anchor. To
use a frivolous example:

<a href="#go-back-to-that-thing">Yeah John, go back to that thing</a>


Hrm, I'm pretty sure I can hear the thoughts of somebody on this list
reading this email...

*"Hah! Good luck building your magical, semantic-detection from
> pixel-drawing commands, kid!"*


Brace yourselves for the gory details of how I'm gonna have a crack at
this...

On 21 April 2018 at 09:04, Steffen Nurpmeso <address@hidden> wrote:

> John Gardner <address@hidden> wrote:
>  |Every instance of the "SHOUTED" headings can be uppercased too, even when
>  |used outside their role as a heading.
>  |
>  |The CSS to achieve this:
>  |
>  |a[href="#name"],
>  |a[href="#description"],
>  |a[href="#authors"] {
>  |
>  |text-transform: uppercase;
>  |}
>  |
>  |Will typecast any link pointing to <section id="name"> in majuscule
> "NAME".
>  |It's all CSS. =)
>
> Hmm, that must be new in CSS (i stopped at CSS2).
> But that has nothing to do with roff, let alone groff, right?
> I referred to for example mdoc(7)'s .Sx command.  And i think even
> Kristap's and Ingo's mandoc C parse tree will not automatically
> perform this adjustment (so that the tag for less(1) that mandoc
> can generate, somehow, is correct), but i have not verified that.
>
> --steffen
> |
> |Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
> |der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
> |einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
> |(By Robert Gernhardt)
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: John Gardner <address@hidden>
> To: groff <address@hidden>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2018 08:39:36 +1000
> Subject: Re: [groff] groff as the basis for comprehensive documentation?
> Every instance of the "SHOUTED" headings can be uppercased too, even when
> used outside their role as a heading.
>
> The CSS to achieve this:
>
> a[href="#name"],
> a[href="#description"],
> a[href="#authors"] {
>
> text-transform: uppercase;
> }
>
> Will typecast any link pointing to <section id="name"> in majuscule "NAME".
> It's all CSS. =)
>
> On 21 April 2018 at 08:29, Steffen Nurpmeso <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > Ralph Corderoy <address@hidden> wrote:
> >  |Ingo wrote:
> >  |> The name of that standard section in man(7) and mdoc(7) is "EXIT
> >  |> STATUS", not "Exit Status" nor "Exit status" nor "exit status".
> >  |
> >  |The shouting section heading makes it easier to find that heading
> rather
> >  |than the same word occurring elsewhere, e.g. `ENVIRONMENT'.
> >
> > Alternatively you have active links and an index and can jump to
> > whatever section or anchor there is.  For print-outs normal case
> > would be much nicer.
> >
> >  |And if the .SH's parameter isn't shouting then perhaps there's a reason
> >  |for it and it should be preserved, even if it just shows up the bug to
> >  |fix.
> >
> > Much nicer.
> >
> > --steffen
> > |
> > |Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
> > |der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
> > |einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
> > |(By Robert Gernhardt)
> >
> >
>
>
>