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
>
>