PD nroff (of sorts)

[Mark Moraes]

karron at MCIRPS2.MED.NYU.EDU writes:
>Where can I get it (Henry Spencers awf) ?
>How do I get somthing in comp.sources.unix ? I don't have rn,
>        and the main university does not keep postings more than a few days.

cs.toronto.edu:pub/awf.shar.Z is a copy straight from Henry's
uucppublic.  (It's also on uunet.uu.net by now, and every
comp.sources.unix archive, presumably)

	Mark.
PS: No, Ed.  Don't repost this! :-)

>From comp.archives Thu Sep 6 20:20:16 EDT 1990
Path: news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!math.lsa.umich.edu!emv
From: moraes at cs.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)
Newsgroups: comp.archives
Subject: [news.software.b] Re: cnews expire takes forever
Keywords: awf, nroff clone, written in old awk, henry spencer lunacy (:-)
Message-ID: <1990Sep6.225856.18153 at math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 6 Sep 90 22:58:56 GMT
Sender: emv at math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)
Reply-To: moraes at cs.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)
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Archive-name: awf/06-Sep-90
Original-posting-by: moraes at cs.toronto.edu (Mark Moraes)
Original-subject: Re: cnews expire takes forever
Archive-site: cs.toronto.edu [128.100.1.65]
Archive-directory: /pub
Reposted-by: emv at math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti)

In news.software.b you write:
>Needless to say, I will force myself to reformat ALL of the docs and read
>them completely before going any farther.  (anybody know of a good PD 
>{n|t}roff that I can get hold of?)

Henry made a cryptic mention of awf, written specifically for this
purpose.  Since it hasn't shown up in comp.sources.unix yet, an easier
way to grab it might be to snarf pub/awf.shar.Z by anonymous ftp from
cs.toronto.edu.  Here's awf.README.  Perhaps some kind soul from
osu-cis or uunet will put it there for people without Internet
access.  Alternatively, try the ftp by mail service offered by
bitftp at pucc.princeton.edu (send a message saying "help")

If you have GNU C++ (g++), you may want to grab groff instead and get
it working.  It'll probably run a tad faster.  On the other hand, awf
is smaller.

	Mark.
----------
This is awf, the Amazingly Workable Formatter -- a "nroff -man" or
(subset) "nroff -ms" clone written entirely in (old) awk.

It is slow and has many restrictions, but does a decent job on most
manual pages and simple -ms documents, and isn't subject to AT&T's
brain-damaged licensing that denies many System V users any text
formatter at all.  It is also a text formatter that is simple enough
to be tinkered with, for people who want to experiment.

Type "make r" to run a regression test, formatting the manual page
(awf.1) and comparing it to a preformatted copy (awf.1.out).  Type
"make install" to install it.  Pathnames may need changing.

I don't know whether awf will run on 16-bit machines.  Data requirements
are modest, but I fear the programs are probably big enough to run awk
out of space.

I can't believe I really wrote this.

                                         Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                          henry at zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
						13 July 1990