[+COFF and TUHS to Bcc:]
Okay, here we go: troff vs. TeX food fight.
On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 11:56 AM Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
> I actually wacked a bunch of the Unix docs to make them look a little
> better, I should see if I can find that.
>
I'd like to see that; presentation of some of those docs is getting a bit
long in the tooth.
I agree that roff is awesome, it's a bummer that Latex seems to be
> the winner (which I think is purely because the roff/eqn/pic/etc
> docs weren't widely available back in the day).
>
I have to disagree with this, however. TeX (and more specifically LaTeX)
won out for technical writing because, frankly, it produces nicer output
than *roff did. If I were writing a thesis or paper, I'd frankly rather use
LaTeX or AMSLaTeX.
I've used eqn to try and typeset math; it's OK if it's all that you've got.
An nroff approximation for output to the terminal is kind of nifty, but
beyond that it simply pales in comparison to TeX. I know that people have,
and perhaps still do, typeset mathematics with eqn/neqn/troff, but given a
choice between the two, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a
mathematician who would choose troff over TeX; similarly with most
technical papers.
Now tbl and pic, those are pretty cool. Even then, GNU pic will output TeX
for incorporation into other documents, and LaTeX has some very nice
table-creation environments that largely subsume the functionality of tbl.
Now don't get me wrong, I *like* roff, and I use it occasionally for
one-off things, but for serious writing for publication I'd generally chose
LaTeX.
- Dan C.
Hi all, I'm in need of a favour. I teach at a TAFE in Australia, equivalent to
a polytechnic or a community college: below the level of a uni, with some
theory and some hands-on skills.
I need to find two industry people to review the assessment I have set for
two courses. It would take about an hour of your time (I hope!).
Would anybody be able to help me out?
Many thanks!
Warren
Does anyone have any experience with the GoTEK SFR1M44-U100 floppy drive
emulator that reads ""images from a USB flash drive?
Good?
Bad?
Indifferent?
Run for the hills?
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
OK, I guess I'll be the one to start things going on the COFF list.
What other features, ideas etc. were available in other operating
systems which Unix should have picked up but didn't?
[ Yes, I know, it's on-topic for TUHS but I doubt it will be for long! ]
Cheers, Warren
Today I learned that File Transfer Protocol supports transferring data
between two remote systems without passing the data through a
controlling host.
The end of § 2.3, The FTP Model, of RFC 959, File Transfer Protocol,
states the following:
"""
In another situation a user might wish to transfer files between two
hosts, neither of which is a local host. The user sets up control
connections to the two servers and then arranges for a data connection
between them. In this manner, control information is passed to the
user-PI but data is transferred between the server data transfer
processes. Following is a model of this server-server interaction.
Control ------------ Control
---------->| User-FTP |<-----------
| | User-PI | |
| | "C" | |
V ------------ V
-------------- --------------
| Server-FTP | Data Connection | Server-FTP |
| "A" |<---------------------->| "B" |
-------------- Port (A) Port (B) --------------
"""
I also learned that FTP uses (a subset of) the Telnet protocol for it's
control connection. Yet another reason to dislike it. (I strongly
prefer 8-bit clean connections and dislike things that need special
handling.)
--
Grant. . . .
unix || die
Hi all. The new COFF mailing list is open & has about twenty subscribers. Feel free to use it!
Cheers, Warren
--
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
