Re: [TUHS] TeX and groff (was: roff(7))

[Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>]

Mary Ann Horton wrote in
 <695e2970-00f2-ab55-8c1a-9fbd03add77f@mhorton.net>:
 |I recall attending a TeX lecture by Knuth around 1981. He said he wasn't 
 |satisfied with the character layout from other formatting programs, 
 |which drove him to write TeX. He illustrated in great detail the kerning 
 |and exact placement of the font characters next to each other. I 
 |couldn't tell the difference, but clearly it was very important to him. 
 |He wanted his documents to look perfect.

I find with proof-reading roff provides very pleasant results; the
german translation of K&R Programming in C (2nd Ed., ANSI C; so
many credits to people on this list!!!) was produced in roff
(Liangs hyphenation, Kernighans pic, Lesks tbl, Kernighan and
Cherrys eqn, XENIX-adjusted d-i troff of ELAN; November 1989), it
could not look better.

I personally feel peeved when my documents do not look acceptable,
but, other than that, from computer documents i do miss the
spiritual, the contemplative and meditative side that
calligraphically beautiful documents represent.  Just recently for
example a Thora that was saved from the flames reappeared here in
Germany, it would be yet another massive loss of culture if this
became binary or quantum.

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)