Re: [Groff] Markdown to MOM Using Pandoc

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Yves,

> I have begun working on a custom writer for Pandoc to convert Markdown
> into MOM, Peter's Groff macro set.

This is a nice idea.  I see quite a few programs about that support
various formats for backends, e.g. HTML and LaTeX, and often think
having troff there too would raise its visibility.

> Groff and MOM are extremely lightweight and comiling a document is
> blazing fast. The only drawback is that writing in pure MOM---as with
> writing in pure LaTeX/ConText---is that it can be distracting to have
> to write so many tags while typing.

True, though it can be useful to approach it the same way as identifying
index entries;  as a separate pass.  Enter plain text, as if writing an
email, using indentation, etc., to show types of content, and then go
back and add macros and escapes, e.g. that \& after the final dot of
`e.g.'.  What I find about the end result is it's still more readable
that TeX because the mark-up isn't so noisy.

Cheers, Ralph.