[TUHS] TeX/troff/typesetting markups - Re: SunOS 4 documentation

Toby Thain toby at telegraphics.com.au
Fri Apr 14 02:35:19 AEST 2017


On 2017-04-12 10:25 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
> On 2017-04-12 10:16 PM, Steve Nickolas wrote:
>> On Wed, 12 Apr 2017, Toby Thain wrote:
>>
>>> You can get really really close to that dream with TeX based tools
>>> like LyX, etc (and indeed Blue Sky Research had a wysiwyg TeX system
>>> back in the late 1980s).
>>>
>>> While troff can get stuff done in its area, for heavy duty work and
>>> exacting typography, TeX's markup blows troff out of the water, I am
>>> afraid.
>>
>> Heh, yeah. I'd defy anyone to typeset a Bible with troff, but I did it
>> reasonably well with XeLaTeX.
>
> I did a 400+ page novel in it once. This had a few benefits. One was

Since it was a bit unclear from context: I'm referring to TeX here and 
below.

> that the same markup could generate double spaced typewriter-style
> printouts for the novelist to bind and scribble his corrections on,
> while at the same time producing the final plate-ready negatives for the
> printer.
>
> Sadly I'm not called much to use it any more but it's a tangible
> pleasure when I do.
>
> (Although I have to say that I don't like CMR much.)
>
> --T
>
>>
>> -uso.
>>
>
>




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