Re: [Groff] The future redux

[Deri James]

On Wed 26 Feb 2014 11:46:32 Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Hi jkl,
> 
> > > man pages don't really need expressive typography.
> > 
> > Man pages are constrained by xterm.  A better display system would
> > invite tables, graphs, equations, and links.
> 
> I don't think they are.  Or they didn't used to be.  It was common to
> see man pages with `.if n' and `.if t', with the troff presenting the
> same data in better form, e.g. ASCII art versus pic(1).  man pages used
> to be commonly printed and high-quality output desired, screen devices
> were glass TTYs, and Sun would ship printed paper man pages in 
folders.
> I still check the PDF of a man page I alter as it shows flaws that
> grotty(1) can't.
> 
> Cheers, Ralph.

I hardly ever use "man command", nearly always do "man -t command" 
because I have changed /etc/man.config to have the line:-

TROFF           groff -Tpdf -mandoc | /usr/bin/okular -

So when I issue that command the page shows up in an okular window, a 
much easier read, adjust zoom for comfort and great searching.

Cheers 

Deri