this post was submitted on 12 Dec 2021
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roff typesetting: groff, troff, etc.

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"Groff (GNU troff) is a typesetting system that reads plain text mixed with formatting commands and produces formatted output. Output may be PostScript or PDF, html, or ASCII/UTF-8 for display at the terminal. Present on most Unix systems owing to its long association with Unix manuals (manpages), groff is capable of producing typographically sophisticated documents while consuming only minimal system resources." -- from GNU

(link: https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/)

Feel free to ask questions about the roff family and its many macros! Interested in learning more? Type man groff or info groff into your terminal to read the documentation. A good macro to start with is the ms macro!

Note: you may have to install groff using your package manager for its full capabilities, as many GNU+Linux distributions only ship with the base package used in manpages.

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Are you a downtrodden Linux user, forced to use Windows 10 despite your wishes? Do you long to typeset with the simple and powerful groff but aren't sure if it is possible on Windows?

Fortunately for the typesetting inclined, it is possible to use the magnificent groff on Windows as well! I decided to highlight this project in particular, because it allows one to use groff on Windows 10 in a most similar manner as on a linuxbox. The notable (improvement?) that this port of groff makes is automatically assuming pdf output, as ps files aren't supported out-of-the-box on Windows 10. Most importantly, the usual macros are supported as well! I don't use -mom, but -ms and -me seem to work flawlessly so far. The graphing package grap is offered too! Be sure to put the binaries in your path so they're accessible from cmd.exe. Coupled with vim and the ezwinports' manpages, the environment hardly feels like Windows 10 at all, which is a good thing, from my perspective.

The ezwinports from eli-zaretskii on SourceForge offers much more than just groff utilites, one example being texinfo, so feel free to look through the rest of the software binaries offered as detailed on the README :)

I would be curious to know if there ever was a Windows user who began to use groff without learning it first through a *nix operating system. Anyone know someone who fits the bill? It's a long shot, but I think it'd be a nifty thing to see. I'm certainly hoping to popularize groff within mine own circle.

Wondering how I possibly could have managed to find ezwinports? It's front and center on the GNU page about groff: https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/

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