On a brute-forcier note, when I was doing a lot more troff, I wrote a command that ran input through ALL the preprocessors I might need. Even on 70's processors, it was fast enough, and msde my life a tiny bit better. -- jpl

On Mon, Feb 22, 2021 at 10:57 AM William Cheswick <ches@cheswick.com> wrote:

This proposal reminds me of Paul Glick’s lp command. It took whatever file you gave it, and processed
it as necessary for whatever printer you chose. It was very useful, simple AI.

> On Feb 22, 2021, at 10:49 AM, John P. Linderman <jpl.jpl@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I can imagine a simple perl (or python or whatever) script that would run through groff input, determine which preprocessors are actually needed, and set up a pipeline to run through (only) the needed preprocessors in the proper order. I wouldn't have to tell groff what preprocessors I think are needed, and groff wouldn't have to change (although my script would) when another preprocessor comes into existence. Modern processors are fast enough, and groff input small enough, that the "extra" pass wouldn't be burdensome. And it would take the burden off me to remember exactly which preprocessors are essential. -- jpl