🚀 go-pugleaf

I have used both TROFF on a vax running 4.2 with a XEROX 2700 and TEX on an
IBM-AT with an APPLE laserwriter. The TeX implementation is faster (uloaded vax

vs. AT), has nicer fonts (this may be the fault of the version of troff I had
that was hacked up for the Xerox printer), is better documented (if you can
read the TeXbook, which I could with effort), and runs on most computers known
to humanity. Troff and nroff only live on UNIX. I'd go with TeX. I used TROFF f
or
two years before finding the money for my own printer. If I'd known how much
better TeX is I'd have taken on a paper route to get my laserwriter sooner.

The only disadvantage is that things like tbl and pic are missing in TeX.
eqn is built in and far better in TeX. With effort you can run rings around
tbl but it takes real work or real help. pic is out of the question unless
you want to hack postscript. Good luck.

In article <210@NCSUVM> N38AA401@NCSUVM.BITNET writes:
>... If I'd known how much
>better TeX is I'd have taken on a paper route to get my laserwriter sooner.
>
>The only disadvantage is that things like tbl and pic are missing in TeX.
>eqn is built in and far better in TeX.

Tbl is really a separate program from nroff.  It was written after nroff was
in use awhile to satisfy the need for column-type data (tables).  Pic was
written for the same reason.

Instead of writing tbl for TeX, you could use a spreadsheet program to
generate your tables, and simple include the outputed table in your TeX
file.  If you have a MacPaint type of program, or your spreadsheet program
does charts (bar, pie, etc.), you can just include these also.

Don't worry.  Someday someone will write a tbl for TeX (and we'll all have
to put up with tbl's syntax for another few centuries :-)

Wayne H. Pollock,
UUCP:	...{ihnp4,cbatt}!cbnap!whp
DELPHI:	WHP
GEnie:	W.POLLOCK

	"The opinions expressed above are ficticious.  Any resemblance
	to the opinions of persons living or dead is purely coincidental."

>/ nucsrl:net.text / N38AA401@NCSUVM.BITNET /  8:48 pm  Oct  2, 1986 /
>The only disadvantage is that things like tbl and pic are missing in TeX.
>eqn is built in and far better in TeX. With effort you can run rings around
>tbl but it takes real work or real help. pic is out of the question unless
>you want to hack postscript. Good luck.

What you are referring to is the default TeX (Plain TeX).  There is a
(precompiled) macro package, LaTeX, which has something like 'pic' and 'tbl'
"built in," as you put it.

Jacob Gore
Northwestern Univ
Comp Sci Research Lab
ihnp4!nucsrl!gore

Find the LaTeX macros and reference manual by Leslie Lamport.
The array, tabular, and tabbing environments have done 
everything I need since switching from troff/tbl/eqn to LaTeX.

At the risk of getting into a UNIX-vs-the-rest flame, or a TeX-vs-troff
flame, I must respond to Henry Spencer's remark that while TeX runs on
most computers known to humanity, troff runs on UNIX, which runs on most
computers known to humanity. True enough, but computing centre managements
which don't run UNIX generally aren't enthusiastic about switching to a
mainframe UNIX port just so some of their users can do troff. 

I speak from experience: I've been using a 4.2 BSD system for proofing
documents which finally live on an Amdahl 5860 running MTS. I only have
to change a few lines regarding fonts at the beginning of the file, and
from then on everything is exactly the same. 

I have no intention of trying to convince the computing centre management
to switch to UTS, VM/UX, or any other such port just so I can do the same
with troff.

In article <438@ubc-cs.UUCP>, manis@ubc-cs.UUCP writes:
> while TeX runs on
> most computers known to humanity, troff runs on UNIX, which runs on most
> computers known to humanity. True enough, but computing centre managements
> which don't run UNIX generally aren't enthusiastic about switching to a
> mainframe UNIX port just so some of their users can do troff. 
> 
...and even if yours would, there are good reasons to use TeX on UNIX.

A Berkeley prof and I wrote a book typeset with troff/eqn for McGraw-Hill.
Now I need parts of this --but in TeX. Here at LLL, Lila Chase and I wrote
a set of filters using sed and lex that convert an in-house text+math
typesetter sources (nearly) to TeX. Does anything like that exist
to convert troff/eqn sources (nearly) to TeX?

For that matter, does anyone have ANY info or filters to convert
Wang, Multimate files to ASCII files that can be given to TeX with
a little hand editting?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
	Bruce Langdon  L-472                langdon@lll-lcc.ARPA
	Physics Department                  "langdon#bruce%d@lll-mfe.ARPA"
	Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory       
	Livermore, CA 94550                 (415) 422-5444
UUCP: ..{ihnp4,qantel,ucdavis,pyramid,styx}!lll-lcc!langdon
                  ..{gymble,seismo}!lll-crg!lll-lcc!langdon

It's not noticeably harder to port troff to a non-UNIX OS than it
is to port TEX.  However, one does need a DWB license for troff.