textproc/awf 19900907nb1 NetBSD

This is awf, the Amazingly Workable Formatter -- a "nroff -man" or (subset) "nroff -ms" clone written entirely in (old) awk.

It is slow and has many restrictions, but does a decent job on most manual pages and simple -ms documents, and isn't subject to AT&T's brain-damaged licensing that denies many System V users any text formatter at all. It is also a text formatter that is simple enough to be tinkered with, for people who want to experiment.

Type "make r" to run a regression test, formatting the manual page (awf.1) and comparing it to a preformatted copy (awf.1.out). Type "make install" to install it. Pathnames may need changing.

I don't know whether awf will run on 16-bit machines. Data requirements are modest, but I fear the programs are probably big enough to run awk out of space.

I can't believe I really wrote this.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                      [email protected]   utzoo!henry
					13 July 1990