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Re: [Groff] Re: groff: radical re-implementation



Werner LEMBERG writes:
> The `-a' option is almost useless today IMHO.  It will show a tty
> approximation of the typeset output:
> 
>   groff -a -man -Tdvi troff.man | less
> 
> It is *not* the right way to quickly select an ASCII device.  To
> override the used macros for the output character set we need a new
> option.
> 
> Using `-a' is comparable to dvi2tty or similar converters.

Exactly.  Sometimes `-a' is explained as producing "ascii" output, but
I think it's better understood as producing "approximate" output.  It
is essentially useful only for debugging and for temporary runs where
the side effects (.write output, .tm output) are more important than
having actual properly formatted pages for output.  In those cases
it's very useful, but in normal cases it's of no use at all.

Would it be useful to add to the texinfo documentation a not
explaining that `-a' should only be used for these situations?
-- 
T. Kurt Bond, tkb@tkb.mpl.com



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