Re: [TUHS] man Macro Package and pdfmark

At Mon, 17 Feb 2020 16:17:18 -0800, Jon Steinhart <jon(a)fourwinds.com> wrote: Subject: Re: [TUHS] man Macro Package and pdfmark Actually there wasn't a truly functional documentation system at the time -- or at least it didn't reach far enough. I.e. there was no open-source [nt]roff compatible program at the time, and the mainly available proprietary one produced (for quality printing purposes) only very convoluted hard-coded output for a quite esoteric and rare piece of equipment. AT&T's public attempt to solve this (ditroff) just added more cost and arguably less availability. Groff didn't arrive until 1990, and as remarkable as it was, it was unfortunately written in C++ (which dissuaded many for a long time). (Henry Spencer's "awf" (nroff in Awk) also came out in 1990, but besides being also too late it was more of a toy; and Chris Lewis' PSroff, also from just before 1990, only solved part of the problem.) Texinfo was a legitimate attempt to solve the problem of missing tools, and at the same time and tried (whether in vain or not) to improve on what were rather widely believed to be major technical and cultural and availability deficiencies in existing tools. Personally I still mostly use Lout these days. :-) -- Greg A. Woods <gwoods(a)acm.org> Kelowna, BC +1 250 762-7675 RoboHack <woods(a)robohack.ca> Planix, Inc. <woods(a)planix.com> Avoncote Farms <woods(a)avoncote.ca>