Re: Proper usage of .rd? Tutorial or Example?

[Oliver Corff]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for your points. I get your idea.

Of course it is a salient approach to have perl, bash etc. loop through
some prompt and readline statements in order to produce the static roff
file that can then be compiled into an elegant invoice.

Consider my idea not to be a pursuit of usefulness but rather an
exercise for the sake of an exercise.

The fact that roff files are fragments of text embedded in code of a
full fledged programming language with its own output device makes it,
at least in theory, plausible to accept a minimal level of
interactivity. Practicality is a totally different concern.

Best regards,

Oliver.


On 03/12/2024 23:10, Robert Thorsby wrote:

> If I may be permitted an observation.
>
> On 4/12/24 08:08, onf wrote:
> > On Tue Dec 3, 2024 at 9:40 PM CET, onf wrote:
> > > There are several approaches that come to mind.
>
> The OP is attempting to shoehorn groff into doing something it was
> designed expressly *not* to do in order to avoid using well known
> programming that is designed to do precisely what he wants.
>
> As I understand it (and Doug and others will correct me if I am wrong)
> groff was designed not to be interactive. It took, and continues to
> this day to take, an input file which it then processes without any
> intervention by the user. Of course, during the decades of its
> existence there have been huge developments in the syntax and
> structure of the input file and the arguments and options to groff
> itself, with the result that groff is arguably the most powerful
> typesetting program on the planet.
>
> IMNSHO the OP should be looking to introduce interoperability into the
> creation of the input file in order to ensure that when it is fed into
> groff it will produce, without further ado, the output he desires.
>
> That's how I produced my invoices. And, I suspect, that's how everyone
> else of this list does too.
>
> Robert Thorsby
--

Dr. Oliver Corff
Mail:oliver.corff@email.de