[9fans] troff macros for typesetting books/longer texts

[tlaronde@polynum.com (tlaronde at polynum.com)]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2011 at 11:21:55AM -0700, Lyndon Nerenberg wrote:
> [...]
> 
> In either case, the customizations are locked in with the document source 
> and don't get distributed. Or they are so tied in with a specific document 
> that they're of no practical use as standalone tools.
> 
> [...]

This is a general pattern. I'm not a troff but a TeX user, and just 
seeing that learning how to use the full potential of TeX to match
my own needs was easier, shorter in time, and less expensive---because 
of D.E. Knuth's TeXbook---than trying to learn how to _use_ some
instance of LaTeX, I still don't understand why others...

I know that it is less effort to climb a mountain via a lengther but
less sloping road... but it must not be endless because flat and must 
reach the top.

The best thing I learnt while aging is not how to do more efficiently,
but how to have time doing knowing where to look for the needle stopping
to search the internet hay stack.

If there is no good short authoritative book on troff, and if you are
not already proficient in troff, try TeX instead simply because of the
TeXbook if not something else.
-- 
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
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