Why TeX?

[Ed Braaten]

What are the advantages of using TeX over nroff/troff? I've heard 
a lot about it, but since I don't have access to it, I've never
been able to try it out.  I chose nroff since it seems to be a 
standard tool available under most implementations of U**X.  
What are the major differences in the two systems?  Which is
more reliable, portable?

I had some trouble getting nroff to print all the special 
characters I need (umlauts & Cyrillic) since the printer I
have (Star NL-10) likes to see ASCII NUL's in some of its 
control sequences.  It works now, but since I don't have 
source to nroff, I had to do everything through the term
driving table nroff uses (/usr/lib/term/*).  Fortunately,
SCO provides source to a generic term driving table which
you can use to roll your own.  How flexible is TeX in this
area?  How portable would the solution be?

I would welcome any input from those of you familiar with both
systems...

Best wishes in 1989!



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