Re: vim :hardcopy equivalent

[Robert Thorsby]

Welcome to the list,

On 22/7/24 04:33, me.groff@mro.name wrote:
> after years of doing my administrative letters with vim :hardcopy plus some 
> settings[1], I'd like to move on to groffing them with identical look and be 
> indepenent of the editor.
>
> So, typewriter look, significant whitespace, page number/total heading.
>
> Being new to groff and a bit lost in macro packages as well as the docs - how 
> would I do that, or where has such been documented before?

Using [g]roff to recreate a typewriter (which it will do superbly) is 
using a sledgehammer to crack walnuts. Everybody who has been a member 
of this list since last century has a letter writing program, written in 
the individual's weapon of choice, to create "proper" business letters.
These business letters are objects of beauty -- they are typeset.

In my case, I use a shell script and no macro package at all.

Before members from your area reply with their genuine contributions I 
suggest you look at Peter Schaffter's mom macro package. In a previous 
life Peter was a typesetter and his continuously maintained, extensively 
documented, macros set can handle business letters with ease.

But, please don't mention "typewriter" in your correspondence -- it will 
be embarrassing for the rest of us to watch a grown man cry. :-)

Sometimes when I write a one-line business letter "In response to your 
'Last Final Demand Before Court Action' of the 13th instant we advise 
that the cheque is in the mail." and I find myself track-kerning I feel 
that I may have become a little too fastidious.

Robert Thorsby
I am always doing what I cannot do yet in order to learn how to do it.
  -- Vincent van Gogh, letter to Anthon van Rappard 18 August 1885