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Diff for /wikisrc/projects/project/troff.mdwn between versions 1.3 and 1.4

-version 1.3, 2014/02/27 08:41:03
+version 1.4, 2014/02/27 09:04:43
  Line 10  category="userland"
  difficulty="hard"
  description="""
- Write a replacement for groff that is BSD licensed.  Earlier versions of BSD
- UNIX had one, so maybe it could be revived from an earlier version of BSD UNIX,
+ While we now have mandoc for handling man pages, we currently still
- and updated to support newer groff-like features, at least enough to support our
+ need groff in the tree to handle miscellaneous docs that are not man
- current mandoc macros.
+ pages.
- Note: In March, 2009, there was some discussion regarding a
+ This is itself an inadequate solution as the groff we have does not
- [groff/-mandoc replacement](http://mdocml.bsd.lv/) on the
+ support PDF output (which in this day and age is highly desirable)
- [tech-userlevel](http://mail-index.NetBSD.org/tech-userlevel/2009/03/01/msg001766.html)
+ ... and while newer groff does support PDF output it does so via a
- mailing list.
+ Perl script. Also, importing a newer groff is problematic for assorted
+ other reasons.
+ We need a way to typeset miscellaneous articles that we can import
+ into base and that ideally is BSD licensed. (And that can produce
+ PDFs.) Currently it looks like there are three decent ways forward:
+ * Design a new roff macro package that's comparable to mdoc (e.g.
+ supports semantic markup) but is for miscellaneous articles rather
+ than man pages, then teach mandoc to handle it.
+ * Design a new set of markup tags comparable to mdoc (e.g. supports
+ semantic markup) but for miscellaneous articles, and a different less
+ ratty syntax for it, then teach mandoc to handle this.
+ * Design a new set of markup tags comparable to mdoc (e.g. supports
+ semantic markup) but for miscellaneous articles, and a different less
+ ratty syntax for it, and write a new program akin to mandoc to handle
+ it.
+ These are all difficult and a lot of work, and in the case of new
+ syntax are bound to cause a lot of shouting and stamping. Also, many
+ of the miscellaneous documents use various roff preprocessors and it
+ isn't clear how much of this mandoc can handle.
+ None of these options is particularly appealing.
+ There are also some less decent ways forward:
+ * Pick one of the existing roff macro packages for miscellaneous
+ articles (ms, me, ...) and teach mandoc to handle it. Unfortunately
+ all of these macro packages are pretty ratty, they're underpowered
+ compared to mdoc, and none of them support semantic markup.
+ * Track down one of the other older roff implementations, that are now
+ probably more or less free (e.g. ditroff), then stick to the existing
+ roff macro packages as above. In addition to the drawbacks cited
+ above, any of these programs are likely to be old nasty code that
+ needs a lot of work.
+ * Teach the groff we have how to emit PDFs, then stick to the existing
+ roff macro packages as above. In addition to the drawbacks cited
+ above, this will likely be pretty nasty work and it's still got the
+ wrong license.
+ * Rewrite groff as BSD-licensed code and provide support for
+ generating PDFs, then stick to the existing roff macro packages as
+ above. In addition to the drawbacks cited above, this is a horrific
+ amount of work.
+ * Try to make something else do what we want. Unfortunately, TeX is a
+ nonstarter and the only other halfway realistic candidate is lout...
+ which is GPLv3 and at least at casual inspection looks like a horrible
+ mess of its own.
+ These options are even less appealing.
+ Maybe someone can think of a better idea. There are lots of choices if
+ we give up on typeset output, but that doesn't seem like a good plan
+ either.
  """
  ]]

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