/contrib/groff/man/ditroff.man

  1.ig
  2ditroff.man
  3
  4Last update: 2 Jul 2004
  5
  6This file is part of groff, the GNU roff type-setting system.
  7
  8Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  9written by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>
 10maintained by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>
 11
 12Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
 13under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or
 14any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
 15Invariant Sections being this .ig-section and AUTHORS, with no
 16Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
 17
 18A copy of the Free Documentation License is included as a file called
 19FDL in the main directory of the groff source package.
 20..
 21.
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 39.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
 40.\" Title
 41.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
 42.
 43.TH DITROFF @MAN7EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
 44.SH NAME
 45ditroff \- classical device independent roff
 46.
 47.
 48.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
 49.SH DESCRIPTION
 50.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
 51.
 52The name
 53.I ditroff
 54once marked a development level of the
 55.I troff
 56text processing system.
 57.
 58In actual
 59.BR roff (@MAN7EXT@)
 60systems, the name
 61.I troff
 62is used as a synonym for
 63.IR ditroff .
 64.
 65.P
 66The first roff system was written by Joe Osanna around 1973.
 67.
 68It supported only two output devices, the
 69.B nroff
 70program produced text oriented tty output, while the
 71.B troff
 72program generated graphical output for exactly one output device, the Wang
 73.I Graphic Systems CAT
 74typesetter.
 75.
 76.P
 77In 1979, Brian Kernighan rewrote troff to support more devices by
 78creating an intermediate output format for troff that can be fed into
 79postprocessor programs which actually do the printout on the device.
 80.
 81Kernighan's version marks what is known as 
 82.I classical troff
 83today.
 84.
 85In order to distinguish it from Osanna's original mono-device version,
 86it was called
 87.I ditroff
 88(\c
 89.IR d\/ evice\~ i\/ ndependent\~ troff\/\c
 90)
 91on some systems, though this naming isn't mentioned in the classical
 92documentation.
 93.
 94.P
 95Today, any existing roff system is based on Kernighan's multi-device
 96troff.
 97.
 98The distinction between
 99.I troff
100and 
101.I ditroff
102isn't necessary any longer, for each modern
103.I troff
104provides already the complete functionality of
105.IR ditroff .
106.
107On most systems, the name
108.I troff
109is used to denote
110.IR ditroff .
111.
112.P
113The easiest way to use ditroff is the GNU roff system,
114.IR groff .
115The
116.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
117program is a wrapper around
118.I (di)troff
119that automatically handles postprocessing.
120.
121.
122.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
123.SH "SEE ALSO"
124.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
125.
126.TP
127.I [CSTR\~#54]
128The 1992 revision of the
129.I Nroff/Troff User's Manual
130by
131.I J. F. Osanna
132and
133.IR "Brian Kernighan" ,
134see
135.br
136.URL http://\:cm.bell-labs.com/\:cm/\:cs/\:cstr/\:54.ps.gz \
137     "Bell Labs CSTR\~#54" .
138.
139.TP
140.I [CSTR\~#97]
141.I A Typesetter-independent TROFF
142by
143.I Brian Kernighan
144is the original documentation of the first multi-device troff
145.RI ( ditroff\/ ),
146see
147.br
148.URL http://\:cm.bell-labs.com/\:cm/\:cs/\:cstr/\:97.ps.gz \
149     "Bell Labs CSTR\~#97" .
150.
151.TP
152.BR roff (@MAN7EXT@)
153This document gives details on the history and concepts of roff.
154.
155.TP
156.BR @g@troff (@MAN1EXT@)
157The actual implementation of
158.IR ditroff .
159.
160.TP
161.BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
162The GNU roff program and pointers to all documentation around groff.
163.
164.TP
165.BR groff_out (@MAN5EXT@)
166The groff version of the intermediate output language, the basis for
167multi-devicing.
168.
169.
170.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
171.SH "AUTHORS"
172.\" --------------------------------------------------------------------
173.
174Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
175.
176.P
177This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
178Documentation License) version 1.1 or later.
179.
180You should have received a copy of the FDL on your system, it is also
181available on-line at the
182.URL http://\:www.gnu.org/\:copyleft/\:fdl.html "GNU copyleft site" .
183.
184.P
185This document is part of
186.IR groff ,
187the GNU roff distribution.
188.
189It was written by
190.MTO bwarken@mayn.de "Bernd Warken"
191and is maintained by
192.MTO wl@gnu.org "Werner Lemberg" .
193.
194.
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