man

[Ronald P. Hughes]

In article <1990Oct12.223848.22890 at servalan.uucp> rmtodd at servalan.uucp (Richard Todd) writes:
>jak9213 at helios.TAMU.EDU (John Kane) writes:
>>What I would like is the original [nt]roff source files for the man pages.
>
>  Alas, the problem is that AT&T changed their mine on the troff input files
>for the man pages.  They now claim that those files are *SOURCE* and thus
>can't be had without the holy *SOURCE LICENCE*.
...
>  Is this braindead?  You bet.  Is there anything that can be done about it,
>short of hoping that AT&T changes the licence agreement for SVR4?  Nope.  

I'll bet it wouldn't be too tough to write something that translates nroff
output for man pages back into the original nroff/troff source (please note
that I'm talking only about man page output, not general nroff output).  In
fact, I would be surprised if it hasn't already been done by someone.  If
it hasn't, I might be willing to do it if there is enough interest to allow
me to pass the hat around when I'm done...  Hey, think of the money we could
save by not having to purchase Apple A/UX manuals.  We could print our own on
laser printers.  LaserWriters, which we would purchase from Apple, of course
(I just added that last comment to calm down Apple's legal dogs).

Ronald P. Hughes		ron at xwind.com  (or ...!uunet!xwind!ron)
CrossWind Technologies, Inc.	408-335-4988

STANDARD DISCLAIMER:  I didn't say that!