Re: troff Memorandum Macros documentation derived from the paper "MM - Memorandum Macros"

[Nate Bargmann]

First, thanks for the replies, they are instructive.

To close the loop on this thread, thanks especially to Kurt and Branden
for providing resources on MM and MS.  I read through both and I was
working with MM and then started leaning toward MS until a few days ago
when I discovered this document:

http://bitsavers.org/pdf/apple/mac/a_ux/aux_2.0/030-0761-A_AUX_Text_Processing_Tools_1990.pdf

as I was looking for a letterhead recipe.  The example shown in Chapter
2 of the book worked flawlessly with groff 1.22.4 on Debian 11, so I
have tilted back in favor of MM now having created my own letterhead in
MM.

What I have been able to ascertain is that MM was an evolution and
extension of MS by Bell Labs as both originated there.  Also, I think
that either MS or MM is relatively easy to learn for anyone versed in
MAN, though there are differences, of course.  The document that Kurt
referenced from DWB was essential to my picking it up quickly.

If there is a nit to pick, it is that groff_mm.7 may still be
incomplete.  The book above provides the following string macro for
printing the current date: 

        Today is \*(DT.

I find 'DT' referenced in the description of the ISODATE macro and
nowhere else in the page (groff 1.22.4; the string is completely removed
in the Git HEAD of contrib/mm/groff_mm.7.man), yet it works just fine.

IMO it should be included in the "strings used in mm" subsection.  Is
there a reason why it is not and why its mention has been removed
completely rather than expanded?

One drawback to MM is the lack of native super/subscript macros.
However, I lifted the superscript formulas from s.tmac and include their
definitions at the top of my letterhead file, appropriately named
SUP/SUPX as borrowed from MOM.  ;-)

Thanks again.

-- 

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