GSoC: mandoc status

[Kristaps Dzonsons <kristaps%bsd.lv@localhost>]

Hi,

I'm pleased to note that mandoc, part of NetBSD GSoC-2010 in case ya 
didn't know, has grown both -Tps and -Tpdf.  Beyond minutiae, that about 
wraps up what I'm here to do.

Stuff:

  http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/mandoc_ps/
  http://mdocml.bsd.lv/

The latter has eye-candy in the DOCUMENTATION section.

Details and battle-scenes follow.

When I last wrote, -Tps was fixed-font and undecorated.  Since then, 
it's settled on a lovely variable-width, 11-point Times.  Furthermore, 
the page size can be set to any reasonable measure with the -Opage argument.

The PDF output mode is basically a PDF reconstitution of the PS commands.

Fight!  Fight!  Fight!:

 % time mandoc -mandoc -Tps mandoc.1 >/dev/null
    0m0.03s real     0m0.01s user     0m0.00s system
 % time groff -mandoc -Tps mandoc.1 >/dev/null
    0m0.42s real     0m0.37s user     0m0.03s system

(Yes, these are averages; no, this isn't a real benchmark.)

 % time groff -mandoc -Tpdf mandoc.1 >/dev/null

Haha!  Just kidding:

 groff: can't find `DESC' file
 groff:fatal error: invalid device `pdf'

Now for the bad news.  First, -Tpdf produces enormous PDF files.  This 
is because it's brand new: I'll pare them down to a fraction of their 
current size with a bit of effort by changing the PDF commands used. 
Second, both -Tps and -Tpdf have wiggly output in columns nudged by 
italics.  This can also be fixed with a bit of work.  More work than 
paring down the PDF size, however.

Anyway, Joerg will have this downstream-merged at some point in the near 
future.  Meanwhile, it's available for download on the site listed above.

Thanks,

Kristaps