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Subject:Re: nroff and troff From:Fred M Jacobson <fred -at- BOOLE -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 25 Jun 1993 08:31:52 PDT
> Does anyone out there know if a filter that converts troff to Frame's
> mif format will also work on nroff files? I know hardly anything
> about nroff and troff (as is obvious) but have to put the contents
> of some nroff files into Frame format. I found a vendor selling a filter
> that converts troff to mif.
> Martha McEver
Martha-
Both nroff and troff are page formatters that can run from the same markup
language. It is common to use the same file to produce both nroff
(typewriter) and troff (typesetter) output. So a filter that converts troff
to mif should handle nroff. BUT, n/troff actually provides only low level
page formatting commands. Usually, documents produced with n/troff use macro
packages that define higher-level document components (like numbered lists
and sections). There are some "standard" macro packages including man, me,
and ms. For a filter to convert your nroff files, it would have to either
(1) include processing of the macro commands your files use or (2) interpret
the macros in the same way n/troff does. The second alternative would be
better if your files define and use some custom macros (as n/troff files
often do - especially if they have been prepared by programmers).
In any case, you should be prepared to do a significant amount of additional
work on the FrameMaker output. Unless the filter can do an excellent job of
mapping the structures in the n/troff files to mif, you will need to clean up
the formatting. In similar work I have done (n/troff to Interleaf), I was so
disappointed in the filter output that I did a lot of the conversion by hand
(but I can "read" n/troff). Another possibility is to produce an ASCII
document with nroff and add the formatting by hand.
If you want to use a filter, try to evaluate it first. See if you can get
the vendor to let you test it on a small representative file so you can check
the quality of the output. (Of course, if it's inexpensive, you could just
buy it knowing that it may not do the job.)
Please let us know what you decide, and, if you use a filter, how well it
works.
-Fred
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