Re: Parallel Typesetting

[Larry McVoy]

This is a great idea but it includes diversions which took me a long time
to get happy with and I'm a huge troff fan.  The person who asked is so
far away from understanding those.

I don't want to discourage that person, just saying that you need to use
troff for a while to get it.  I'm happy to help you get it.

On Thu, May 26, 2022 at 08:49:50PM -0400, Douglas McIlroy wrote:
> I don't see how to typeset a multilingual text
> parallel by page strictly within groff.
> However, suppose
> 
> 1. the input comes from two different files
> that contain synch points.
> 2  corresponding synch points must appear
> on facing pages.
> 3. segments between successive sync points
> always fit on one page.
> 
> Then a small non-troff program can merge
> synchronized segments alternately from the
> two files.
> 
> To process the merged file, direct segments
> by pairs into diversions named, say,
> A1, B1, A2, B2, ... When the sums of lengths
> of either Ai or Bi overflow a page, emit
> the diversions in order A1, A2 ... .bp
> B1, B2 ... .bp. Rename the overflowing pair
> A1, B1 and continue.
> 
> Synch-point macros end, measure, and
> start diversions, invoking an overflow
> macro as necessary.

-- 
---
Larry McVoy                  lm at mcvoy.com             
http://www.mcvoy.com/lm