Date: Sun, 16 Mar 1997 15:35:14 +0300 (IDT)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: djgpp-announce AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Groff 1.10 ported to DJGPP
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.970316153356.12150K-100000@is>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII


One overly self-confident author wrote in the DJGPP FAQ list (section
5.6):

  To format [man page] files, you can choose one of these methods:

   * Get and install a DOS port of the `groff' package, or port it yourself
     (a very difficult task).

Well, it turns out it's not so difficult after all.  This is to
announce that a port of Groff 1.10 to DJGPP v2.01 has been uploaded to
SimTel mirrors and is available from these URLs:

  ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/gro110b.zip
  ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/v2gnu/gro110s.zip

(`b' for `binaries', `s' for `sources').  Please read the file
djgpp/README before unzipping the package, whether you intend to use
the binaries or rebuild it yourself.  That README explains how to
install the package correctly, how to rebuild it from sources and how
to format man pages using Groff; if you fail to read that file,
chances are Groff won't work for you.

What is Groff?  Groff is a system for formatting documents written in
the `troff' format.  DJGPP users are likely to see such files when
they get Unix man pages, since most modern documentation systems have
abandoned that format, but even modern software such as X Windows
still comes with `troff' documentation.

With this port of Groff you get all the tools in the original GNU
package, sans the `gxditview' program (which requires X Windows and is
therefore not ported).  The main programs are:

	- Troff and its preprocessors (eqn, pic, tbl, refer, soelim);
	- A driver program (called `groff') that will invoke all the
	   necessary preprocessors in a pipe to format a document;
	- Macro packages -man, -ms, -mm and -me;
	- Drivers to output formatted documents to screen, to
	   PostScript and LJ4 printers, and to a DVI file;
	- Programs to index and query bibliographic databases:
	   indxbib, lkbib, lookbib;
	- Font-converting programs.

Please be sure to report any problems you see with this port on the
comp.os.msdos.djgpp news group (or write to djgpp AT delorie DOT com, which
is an email gateway to the group), before posting to GNU-related
forums, especially if the problem seems to be DOS-specific.  Do NOT
use the djgpp-announce mailing list for any further discussion
concerning this issue.

Enjoy.