4 This file is part of groff, the GNU roff type-setting system.
6 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009
7 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
8 written by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>
9 maintained by Werner Lemberg <wl@gnu.org>
11 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
12 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
13 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
14 Invariant Sections being this .ig-section and AUTHORS, with no
15 Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.
17 A copy of the Free Documentation License is included as a file called
18 FDL in the main directory of the groff source package.
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26 .TH DITROFF @MAN7EXT@ "@MDATE@" "Groff Version @VERSION@"
30 ditroff \- classical device independent roff
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39 once marked a development level of the
41 text processing system.
47 is used as a synonym for
51 The first roff system was written by Joe Ossanna around 1973.
53 It supported only two output devices, the
55 program produced text oriented tty output, while the
57 program generated graphical output for exactly one output device, the Wang
58 .I Graphic Systems CAT
62 In 1979, Brian Kernighan rewrote troff to support more devices by
63 creating an intermediate output format for troff that can be fed into
64 postprocessor programs which actually do the printout on the device.
66 Kernighan's version marks what is known as
70 In order to distinguish it from Ossanna's original mono-device version,
74 .IR d\/ "evice " i\/ "ndependent " troff\/\c
76 on some systems, though this naming isn't mentioned in the classical
80 Today, any existing roff system is based on Kernighan's multi-device
83 The distinction between
87 isn't necessary any longer, for each modern
89 provides already the complete functionality of
92 On most systems, the name
98 The easiest way to use ditroff is the GNU roff system,
101 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
102 program is a wrapper around
104 that automatically handles postprocessing.
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113 The 1992 revision of the
114 .I Nroff/Troff User's Manual
118 .IR "Brian Kernighan" ,
120 .UR http://\:cm.bell-labs.com/\:cm/\:cs/\:cstr/\:54.ps.gz
126 .I A Typesetter-independent TROFF
129 is the original documentation of the first multi-device troff
132 .UR http://\:cm.bell-labs.com/\:cm/\:cs/\:cstr/\:97.ps.gz
138 This document gives details on the history and concepts of roff.
141 .BR @g@troff (@MAN1EXT@)
142 The actual implementation of
146 .BR groff (@MAN1EXT@)
147 The GNU roff program and pointers to all documentation around groff.
150 .BR groff_out (@MAN5EXT@)
151 The groff version of the intermediate output language, the basis for
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159 Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2009
160 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
163 This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free
164 Documentation License) version 1.3 or later.
166 You should have received a copy of the FDL on your system, it is also
167 available on-line at the
168 .UR http://\:www.gnu.org/\:copyleft/\:fdl.html
173 This document is part of
175 the GNU roff distribution.
178 .MT bwarken@\:mayn.de
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