From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 98584a5f for ; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 07:47:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 9A0179BA2A; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 17:47:23 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB9629478E; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 17:47:14 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id F35569478E; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 17:47:12 +1000 (AEST) Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id CA32293D23; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 17:47:11 +1000 (AEST) X-Envelope-From: arnold@skeeve.com Received: from freefriends.org (freefriends.org [96.88.95.60]) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id x8F7klOW023120 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 15 Sep 2019 01:46:47 -0600 Received: (from arnold@localhost) by freefriends.org (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id x8F7kjsq023119; Sun, 15 Sep 2019 01:46:45 -0600 From: arnold@skeeve.com Message-Id: <201909150746.x8F7kjsq023119@freefriends.org> X-Authentication-Warning: frenzy.freefriends.org: arnold set sender to arnold@skeeve.com using -f Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2019 01:46:45 -0600 To: wkt@tuhs.org, ullbeking@andrewnesbit.org, tuhs@tuhs.org, lm@mcvoy.com, arnold@skeeve.com References: <201909132024.x8DKObEP013266@darkstar.fourwinds.com> <463d5cc4-9bef-9ac3-a680-a5161d664dc1@aueb.gr> <20190913221345.GA16129@minnie.tuhs.org> <20190914020240.GO2046@mcvoy.com> <20190914024433.GA19193@minnie.tuhs.org> <2e84c4d0-5239-b223-856d-00aacf8d3028@andrewnesbit.org> <201909150654.x8F6sChG021185@freefriends.org> <27f52737-3e3b-1198-7ed4-6b97a5f19938@andrewnesbit.org> In-Reply-To: <27f52737-3e3b-1198-7ed4-6b97a5f19938@andrewnesbit.org> User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] earliest Unix roff X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" Hi. "U'll Be King of the Stars" wrote: > AS for authoring DocBook I was depending on GNU Emacs to do a lot of the > heavy XML stuff for me. Wishful thinking perhaps. Possibly. I use gvim. :-) And, no, I won't start _that_ discussion. To each his own, live and let live. > > I have written books in troff, DocBook > > and Texinfo. Texinfo is *by far* the superior markup language. > > I've had a feeling that Texinfo has been getting brushed to the side. It is actively maintained and developed. > Are you suggesting that Info is a good as a rendered documentation > format? Or just that Texinfo is good for proto-documents that are to be > authored in a parseable and meaningful format? The latter. > Moreover it was (is?) very difficult to generate good contents and index > pages with the official tools that I used at the time. For _printed_ matter, the current texinfo does fine at table of contents. The upcoming version of texinfo (in prerelease now) has new indexing capabilities that bring it on par with what you see in commercial publishing: multilevel indexing, as well as "see" and "see also" entries. I agree that Info isn't lovely; I prefer to read the generated HTML from makeinfo, or the PDF from texi2pdf. > I have read the Texinfo documentation and I agree that it seemed like a > rich markup language. Much of the growth in the markup language has been at my urging over the years. :-) > *I haven't really looked at eqn beyond browsing docs and I'm not sure > how much I should expect from it.* eqn is the inspiration for math mode in TeX. That's very clear, and Knuth was also aware of tbl. > > My own wish for the next genie in a lamp that I come across would be > > for a texinfo --> troff translator. > > Have you looked at Pandoc? I don't know if it will do this but it's > worth checking out. Thanks for that pointer. I'll have to take a look at it. Arnold