roff from 4.4BSD [Re: groff/-mandoc replacement]

[Andrew Doran <ad%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Mar 02, 2009 at 05:05:44PM +0200, markucz%gmail.com@localhost wrote:

> > There was a very recent conversation about another reason to replace gproff,
> > which was to avoid C++ so the userland could be compiled with pcc.
> > 
> > Just about the right time. Interesting!
> 
> Some time ago I wondered whether I could replace groff with 4.4BSD's roff. It
> seems there're no licensing issues (that was the only thing bothering me).
> Later I discovered MirBSD was using it already. pcc compiles it without any
> problems, too.

I tried this recently and it appears to render manual pages correctly,
albeit with the odd complaint. On the downside it's doesn't have html output
or PostScript (not really a big deal), and needs some work to handle our
macros. On the plus side it's written in C and has all the tools expected of
roff.

Andrew