Date:	Tue, 18 Mar 1997 14:55:19 +0300 (IDT)
From:	Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To:	"M. Schulter" <mschulter AT DOT value DOT net>
cc:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject:	Re: groff installation: thanks, eli
In-Reply-To:	<5gkrb1$8ph$1@vnetnews.value.net>
Message-ID:	<Pine.SUN.3.91.970318144128.17465c-100000@is>
MIME-Version:	1.0

On 18 Mar 1997, M. Schulter wrote:

> (1) For more ignorant users such as myself <grin>, it might be helpful to
> note in the instruction on adding the extra lines in the DJGPP README file
> to DJGPP.ENV if your DJGPP trunk directory is not C:\DJGPP:

This is not mentioned ON PURPOSE: you shouldn't change that line (in 
fact, any line) in DJGPP.ENV, even if your main DJGPP installation 
directory is not C:\DJGPP.  (My installation is also different, but that 
line is intact.)  By setting the DJGPP environment variable to the full 
pathname of the file DJGPP.ENV file, you cause DJGPP programs to find 
everything else correctly; no need to change anything in DJGPP.ENV.

Your experience just confirms once again that editing DJGPP.ENV should be 
the last resort, and definitely NOT something you should do without a 
full understanding of its syntax.

> Of course, maybe I should have read another FAQ somewhere about the syntax
> for the djgpp.env file <grin>

The DJGPP.ENV syntax is described in the kb.inf file (which comes with 
djdev201.zip).

> (2) Since I'm using groff mainly as a typesetting language to generate
> PostScript output to a file I can then interpret and view from within
> Emacs, I changed the variable for the default device from
> 
> +GROFF_TYPESETTER=ascii
> 
> to
> 
> +GROFF_TYPESETTER=ps

Again, this is not the correct way to do that.  The `+' character makes 
the setting of GROFF_TYPESETTER outside the DJGPP.ENV file (from the DOS 
prompt or in AUTOEXEC.BAT) to override the setting inside DJGPP.ENV, so 
you needn't edit the file.

> which is the default documented in the GNU man pages. Of course, this
> choice may reflect the fact that I use less to read man pages -- as I
> learned to do in the DJGPP FAQ <grin>.

Groff and Less aren't interchangeable: Groff is required to *format* man 
pages from the Troff sources, while Less is required to *browse* man 
pages that already has been formatted.  If you have an unformatted man 
page, you will see a lot of gibberish trying to read it wih Less.

> (3) I'm delighted to report that groff works with my PS interpreter from
> within Emacs: I can edit a file in troff format, changing the point size,
> say, and then run a batch file to run groff, generate PS output to a file,
> run the interpreter on the file, and call a viewer to display it.

Thanks for reporting this.

> This
> looks like a great way to learn troff, including the options to embed ps
> code in a document, because there's near-real-time visual feedback. (It
> takes maybe between five and ten seconds to format and preview a short
> practice document.)

If you are serious about writing in troff, you might consider reading the 
docs in the Groff source distribution (v2gnu/gro110s.zip), in the doc/ 
subdirectory.

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